Today, is a glorious day to be out in the garden. Over the weekend, I thought I'd be scattering seeds around the garden perimeter envisioning many sweeping wildflowers blowing in the summer breeze come July and August.
What I forget, as every gardenener knows, the weeds have the same idea and have self-seeded themselves from last year. Instead of planting my flower seeds, I did the 'behind the scenes' - the stuff that rarely makes the Instagram posting! - work of digging up weeds and cutting back vines.
It took me two days of weeding and vine cutting before I could have the dirt in proper shape to welcome my seeds. As I started writing, today IS a glorious day as I'm going to get to scatter those seeds.
I'm looking at my seed packets that I've been holding on to for ... years?! As many gardeners know (or have been told - garden marketing?) you must get fresh seeds every year.
For this gardener, I'm into 'risky business' which means I'll be scattering these seeds from a few (more than a few?) years back. I'm planning on treating them with love and care - watering and spot weeding around them. They'll get a mix of sun and shade, perhaps less than ideal for those sun loving plants, though, I'll be watching and making sure I can do what I can to get them to grow.
Why am I using years-old semi-ancient seed packets? Call me sentimental - plus hopeful !
The first set of seeds, Money Plant (also know as Lunaria and "Silver Dollars" plant), along with Lockspur and Hollyhock, I purchased at Monticello, a historical site owned by Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States Charlottesville, Virginia.
The seeds, as I learned at the garden shop while I was there in 2012 (ok, yes, these seeds packets are 13 years old - ala 13 original U.S. colonies?!) came from original plants from Monticello during Jefferson's time. Hmm. Might be more garden marketing stuff to enchant the gardening tourists (hand raised here!). Either way, I purchased these to plant in my garden. I did think I'd be doing it sooner. Time to find out how much 'oomph' is left in these seeds.
The other set of seed packets came from a work colleague who gave these to me on my birthday. I was touched by the gesture. So much so, that I kept those seeds waiting for the perfect time to plant them! Guess that's today!
Here I am with seeds packets from 2018 (ok, these are only 7 years old!) scouting out the best spot to plant them. Polar Bear Zinnia (sounds big and white!) Snapdragons (lovely), Tiger Pay Aster (grrr, here we come!) and Endless Blooms Cut Flower Mix (It's a mystery packet!).
Another two seed packets of Cosmos flowers, came to me from a client who's company was supporting Earth Day a few years back and gave out the seed packets to their employees. This employee gave me hers. Regifting at its finest. Again, I've been hanging on to these since 2017.
Guess it goes along with me starting a garden blog. Been thinking about this for awhile ... Today it begins.
One more ancient seed journey to report on.
My mother grew "Silver Dollar" plants when we were growing up. I remember seeing the green oval discs that needed to turn brown in order for us to slide the two sides together with our fingers to expose the translucent shimmery silver disc that awaited underneath. I found this bag with a few of my mom's seeds. These must be more than 35 years old as she probably gave them to me when we bought our home about that time. Oops! Definitely well past their use-by date. All the same, I'm going to put these in their own sunny spot and will water to see if I can get anything to germinate.
Seed planting and garden blog writing. Here we go... Ready to launch both!
As I hit the "Publish" button off I go to plant these seeds.
I'll be back to report on how I did along with how long it takes for them to begin to sprout. I'm hopeful all will be well in a few weeks, despite their age and my "I'll do it tomorrow" refrain.
Thanks for stopping by to enjoy my garden ramblings with me.
Joyce in the Garden
