This morning, I’m really happy to say that I’ve managed to get my seed sowing done. I had actually forgotten how much I enjoy doing this sort of thing as I haven’t done it in a while. Its made me realise that I should be doing a lot more of this, not just at home but in my working life too (its just the how, without having to work in a nursery situation, which would drive me crazy within a couple of weeks!).

So what have I been sowing today? I have mainly gone for vegetables that I eat really frequently, along with a couple of random things too. For my lunches, i usually have sandwiches of one form or another and frequently have tomatoes, beetroot and spring onions on there, along with avocado and cucumber too. Sandwiches with just one thing on are so boring to me, the more I can for on the better! So I have sown the following:

• Tomato ‘Wapspinicon Peach’
• Tomato ‘San Marzano’
• Tomato ‘Tommy Toe’
• Tomato ‘Pink Bumble Bee’
• Tomato ‘Blue Berries’
• Tomato ‘Jaune Flamme’
• Beetroot ‘Bulls Blood’
• Beetroot ‘Heirloom Mix’
• Beetroot ‘Mini Gourmet’
• Spring onion ‘Evergreen Trident’

I have chosen several of these tomato varieties as I fancy trying something other than the usual supermarket tomato, basing my choices on the rather random names that some of them have. I find these names rather good fun! The San Marzano tomatoes are chosen for making passata, something that we will use a lot of at home. Other seeds I have sown are as follows:

• Brussels sprouts ‘Red Rubin’
• Brussels sprouts ‘Long Island’
• Sunflower ‘Evening Sun’
• Capsicum ‘California Wonder’
• Echeveria cante
• Echeveria desmetiana (often known, incorrectly, as E. peacockii)

This may be controversial to some people, but I do like Brussels sprouts, so I’ve gone for a green variety and a red one, mainly because I’ve never had red Brussels sprouts before. That’s the great thing about growing your own veg-you can try a whole different range of varieties and types of fruit and veg than you can ever get from a supermarket. That is something that should be celebrated by more people.

I chose to sow some sunflower seeds, because sunflowers are just lovely. I also want to start growing succulents, hence the two Echeveria species that I’m trying. The seeds for these are so small (see the picture below). I just hope that I got the seeds into the right place. It will take up to a month for these tiny seeds to germinate, and I really hope that I’ve got it right! Echeverias are lovely little plants, so that is my experiment of the week.

The weather is forecast to be partly cloudy with light winds, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, with a maximum of thirty degrees celcius. My weather station says we will get rain, so I’ll report back and say which was more accurate! At the time of sowing my seeds (I’d finished by eight this morning), the temperature was 21 degrees and 82% humidity with little wind. The looking up at the sky test was cloudy but bright.

That is my gardening day done. As always, the jobs list is as long as my arm, but some things never change and are the same for all of us! Until next time, happy gardening!