A spot of potting

A happy and productive afternoon up in the sauna; sorry, potting shed doing what it says on the door. Potting. I am bursting with winter kale seedlings. So they had to go into containers and individual pots. I don’t dare put them out in the garden until I can sort out the creature eating my swiss chard.

Next up the lovely coriander fronds. I know I’m late in the season to actually get these going. But everything bolted in the heat earlier. So it will be autumn stir fries for these beauties.

And while I was gently basting, I decided that it was time to hoik everything outside into the relative cool of the shed shade. Out came the seeds. Aquilegias not doing as they are told. (But Andrew reassures me that they are beasts to germinate and I may be better with plants instead.) Cuttings sulking and in some cases dying.

So out they came and were minutely inspected. Some of the jostaberry cuttings are actually alive which is great news. They are the soft fruit du jour around here. And I realised that of all the cuttings, verbena bonariensis comes up trumps. Tough as boots. Why even the bonariensis hedge was on the brink of death just a few weeks ago from lack of water. A slosh or two and the brown flowers have turned their delightful mauve again. And the butterflies thank me for the effort.

So down I nipped and managed to rustle up two pots more for propagating. Wish I had more seeds to sow. But I will just have to be patient a few weeks more.

What else had the treatment? I potted on more spinach sown a few weeks back and looking lush. And more echinacea and some cornflowers which are up. No sign of the sweet rocket or monarda yet. Nor the nigella. But perhaps they will do better out of the blast of heat that is my outdoor office. Watch this space.