What's in your seed box?

Love in a mist, Californian poppies, marigolds, black eyed Susan, morning glory, sweet peas, Canterbury bells, delphiniums, foxgloves all in paper envelopes in a cardboard box waiting for spring time

My seedbox is full of part-used packets of veg seeds, many of which will still be viable next year. It also has several part-packets of various flowers, most of which are well past their use-by date - After several sowings of cosmos this year, I only got two viable plants, so it's definitely time for those to go!

My ambition last year was to win the veg section of the village show. Somehow or other, I managed it, and am now going to put part of my garden back to lawn and flowers.

After learning yesterday here on Gransnet that you can grow your own loofahs, that's also on my 'try' list for next year

I start my sowing in neat rows, but always have more ambition than space, so often end up with some things growing in the strangest of places, like a pumpkin up into the now-dead eucalyptus tree!

Sowing in neat rows is really helpful when trying to distinguish weeds from Hardy Annuals as it all germinates. The only weed I get is bindweed coming in from next door so that's rarely a problem. I have one border about three feet wide that runs from the back of the house to the back fence and one square plot that my apple tree grows in. All the rest is paved & with pots of all sizes. There's just room for a garden table & bench. I think it's twenty-odd feet by fifteen if I remember right (not measured since I moved in about twenty years ago). There also a fenced off metal mesh pen with finely crushed bark for DH's guide dog to pee in. I can't remember the dimensions of that but it's the minimum size allowed by GDBA. I grow my runner beans up the outside of that. I can't remember the variety of bean...it's a 'heritage' variety that you can save the seed and it always comes true. It might not be a UK variety though. It was given to me by an old West Indian man from his alottment. He'd been growing that variety for donkey's years. It's very good. Ivory coloured flowers, long and very tasty pods and white beans mottled with pale pink.

Bluebell, I'd love to grow delphiniums but they always get slugged. I have hollyhocks, climbing roses and foxgloves for height. Oh, and I planted a globe artichoke I bought at a local plant fair this summer but that won't get big until next summer. One time I did those giant blue echiums you get in the Canary Islands. They grow easily from seed, they take two years to flower. They self seeded all over the garden and became a bit of a pain in the end so I pullled them all up.

londongranny for you

Lovely!

If you want to try again I ll happily send you a few seeds Granny

That's really very kind of you but it really is slug central and I don't do slug pellets. Now I just grow things the slugs leave alone. I spent the first few years battling away and in the end I lost heart. Also plagued with lily beetle so I gave up on growing lilies. I grow day lilies instead now. I do love delphiniums so I go and see the National Collection in Regent's Park

Day lilies are brilliant aren’t they I ve got lots too but they don’t flower if they get too crowded I had to split a lot up last year as they were blind as bats this year flowered beautifully

I have 'Longfields Glory' which a friend gave me from her huge well-established clump....here's a pic off google.

My main problem is fitting everything in!

I bought some pansies from a local, family run nursery two years ago. The flowers were big and colourful so I gathered the seeds and planted them this spring. This was very successful so I am in the process of gathering the seed again for sowing next spring. I've bought other things from the nursery so don't feel too mean!

Big pansy seeds, violas, Spanish flag and verbena . I als bought a packet of pumpkin seeds as I've always wanted to grow one !

I've saved and dried seeds from the Honeydew Melons and Acorn Squash I grew this summer. They were exceptionally delicious and I hope the seeds grow next summer..
I've changed my mind about growing Morning Glory and Hollyhocks again. They are too invasive and I hate clearing up the fences they grown on.
This year, for the first time, I grew Nasturtiums. Very nice, but we had a plague of grasshoppers this summer and they ate all the blooms.
I will put bok choi and curly kale in my seed box when the 2020 seeds are available. I have a delicious recipe for kale salad that even DH likes.
I don't seem to have much luck with day lilies. They never have many blooms. I think since all the plants are from two original plants, they weren't very good in the first place.
I will start over with new plants next spring..

pageturner My nasturtiums were decimated by cabbage white caterpillars
I always grow morning glory in big pots or containers
My day lilies weren’t flowering at all until I split them all up then they have been brilliant this year

*Bluebelle*. Growing the Morning Glory in pots may be a better idea. Thanks. Do you place a trellis in the pot?
I did see some thin bright green caterpillar-types about an inch long among the nasturtium so it might have been them eating the blossoms. I do think the grasshoppers were a contributing factor in the decimation.
One plant I always have is Petunias. I can always count on them to bloom all summer. So far there haven't been insects that eat them. Seems as though every summer that I've been gardening (7 years) I've had to contend with a different insect causing havoc.
I'm looking into getting some poly tunnels next summer.
It's only October and I'm already planning. It's going to be a loooong winter?

Hollyhocks, lupine and rambling nasturtiums - I’m going to do a bit of guerrilla gardening next spring!

What I did pageturner was I had some plastic squared wire and cut a piece and sort of bent it round to thalf the pot shape if you get me but also they can cascade downwards too so if you have something to put the pot on a shelf or tree stump etc that can look really pretty or hanging on the fence or wall

Last time I did Morning Glory I made a little 'forest' of twiggy prunings shoved in the earth (I often do this to deter cats from digging freshly sown flowerbeds and containers) and they twined around those.

...and my seed box has grown a bit...a friend has given me seeds from her mangetout on her allotment. They'd been given to her in a seed swap ages ago and she saves the seed each year. She has no idea what they're called but are an old variety and very delicious.

I have very little room so I shall try growing them through my climbers. Just one or two.

Dust! ?

Thanks for those ideas, Bluebelle and LondonGranny
Now I don't have to buy a trellis.????

Definitely can't plant delphiniums as they a toxic to cats.
They are beautiful, though.

I haven't saved seed this year but have plenty of veg seeds for next.
I always buy far too many.
Our student grew hemp seeds in the greenhouse. Not the cannibis kind but the edible seeds. They took ages to sprout but grew very tall with tiny blue flowers. Is that the same as the crop grown for spinning?

I have trays of sweet william ready to plant out in the spring. They are slug resistent.