Seeds are being sown Part 2 - Germination

A few weeks back I sowed some peppers, aubergines, tomatoes and sweet peas. The first 3 have thrived and the seeds have germinated - the sweet peas less so.

Here's the peppers, aubergines and tomatoes. Nicely germinated on the kitchen table. The only thing I have to worry about now is trying to make sure they all get enough day light so they don't get too leggy.

On the other hand here are the sweet peas. They don't look so grand! In fact some of the seeds look just as they did when they came out of the packet.........

Now why might that be? Well seeds need 3 things to germinate successfully:

1. Oxygen

2. Temperature &

3. Moisture

I sowed the seeds in a decent seed compost with added perlite. The perlite meant that the structure of the compost was such that the seeds would get some oxygen. The seeds were placed on a sunny windowsill and the perlite also meant that they'd be insulated and kept warm.

But I'll be honest. I wasn't about to keep them moist. And as the photos show, the compost was quite dry when I took a closer look. My fault.

They've now been watered and are now under special measures. The thing is though I so wanted a scented display of lathyrus odaratus this year.....

So I've sown some more. But this time a bit differently as I want to be able to monitor their progress. The radicle emerging from the seed........

Let's hope this works.

1. Kitchen roll. In a seed tray. Moistened. Seeds added about an inch apart.

2. Another sheet over the top. Lightly moistened. Propagator cover placed over the top - ignore the writing - last year's tomatoes. I could have used a clear bag. It's just to create a mini-greenhouse.

3. On the kitchen table. Warm and sunny location.

I'll keep an eye on them and make sure they're kept moist. Hopefully this time I'll have lots of germinated seeds that I can then pot up in a few days time!

Part 3 will follow. And in a couple of days I'll be sowing carrot seeds - on toilet roll. Yes. Toilet roll. And more tomatoes. And in between that I've got more onions and garlic to get in. And a garden for a very important client - me - to get designed properly and the hard landscaping underway.

Busy, busy, busy.