Swooning over seed catalogues

I’m quite sad to see the back of Christmas this year, I guess because it’s been much more low-key than usual and I don’t really feel festived-out yet. But also our real tree is looking surprisingly fresh and perky instead of the petrified, skeletal fire-hazard it usually resembles by now. Maybe because we chose it while it was still growing this year? Must remember to do that again next year.

Anyway, Christmas is over, New Year is here and so thoughts obviously turn to Spring, the garden, longer days and better weather. Work is starting on the garden at last but it’s the slow and painfully muddy process of digging out the pool that has to happen first. I cannot wait till I have a garden that looks good even in monochrome January. But this year there is nothing to see except piles of soil, so I’m looking at seed catalogues instead. 

Given that the garden will be under construction until well into Spring, realistically I can only order things that will be delivered for May/June planting. April at a push. No half-hardy annual seed sowing this year. So I’m limiting myself to established plug plants, hardy annual seeds that can go straight in the ground and things for the greenhouse that will arrive when outside looks like less of a building site and there’s somewhere to put them.

Here’s what I’ve circled so far:

·       Bird’s foot trefoil plug plants for round the edges of the lawn. I love these wildflowers which we used to call ‘eggs and bacon’ when I was growing up. So Spring-y.

·       Baby cucumbers for the greenhouse – I think the girls will love these plus I can try pickling them.

·       Cherry tomato plants; a selection of 3 varieties as I haven’t tried them before. Hoping – if nothing else – they’ll make the greenhouse smell AMAZING.

·       Runner beans (Firestorm) – more for the flowers than the crop tbh.

·       Tom Thumb pea plants, because I absolutely love fresh peas from the garden but find the staking of normal pea plants a bit annoying, so these miniature plants that don’t need support look like they could be the answer.

·       Little gem lettuce plants, because we eat loads of little gem so I would feel very Good Life-ish if we could grow our own supply.

·       Loads of nasturtiums, obviously.

·       Helichrysum seedlings, because my Mum used to grow them and dry them for Christmas arrangements and I have a vision of them suspended artily in the greenhouse.

·       Various dahlias for the raised veg beds, mostly in oranges and reds and corals.

·       A selection of pelargoniums which I really want to do better with now that I’ll have a greenhouse to overwinter them in. I have a plan to grow them as mini trees, almost bonsai style, in aged terracotta pots. We’ll see. A blog post for another day perhaps.