Sowing the seeds with love

I am the fairest of fairweather gardeners. Come October and the last of the tomatoes have been picked, the days are colder and the nights draw in I turn my back on the garden. Throughout winter and its frosts, snow, wind and rain I leave the garden to fend for itself. The rosemary bush battles on while the hydrangea flowers slowly turn brown and protect the new spring shoots.

This year the winter seems to have rolled on and on. The weather hasn't been particularly harsh but the coldness and grey days have dragged on and on. Up to Easter Day I was still wearing my winter coat (although to those that know this won't come as a surprise!). Then the Sun with its spring warmth appeared and suddenly I felt it was time to step out and start getting things sorted. I had a look through my seed box (yes, it's an old Yorkshire Tea cardboard container) and found the usual collection of out of date seeds. Last year I had success with old seeds so I went through to see what I fancied sowing first. I found Ailsa Craig tomatoes and some rocket so the first two trays were easy. Since I didn't sow anything until 11^th May last year (you see fairweather!) I was dubious that the greenhouse would be too cold for germination purposes but the rocket seedlings have already poked their heads up.

I always like to grow some French beans. I had some of the 'speedy' ones left over from last year but I wasn't particularly impressed with either their speed of growth or their size. A trip to the garden centre changed this and I asked the Junior JibberJabbers what they would like to grow. Of course their eyes were taken by the Suttons range designed especially for children so we bought the vegetable pack (yes I know tomatoes and cucumbers are strictly vegetables!) and the herb one as I wanted some parsley and basil seeds anyway. I filled up my usual French bean tub and got the kids to make small holes around and pop a bean in each of them. Miss JibberJabber then wrote out the name tag and got the idea that there could be a Brownie badge associated with this activity. There is and so I have an under-gardener for the next couple of months.

Yesterday I decided to get the next batch of tomato seeds sown. This time the Gardener's Delight from the Suttons kids pack. I asked Master JibberJabber to help me and he insisted on donning his 'plant gloves' and getting his tools out of his gardening bag. I'm not sure the seeds on the right hand of the tray were covered; more like dug in. I'm only after about three strong plants so hopefully the ones on the left hand side will suffice my needs!

After that there was just one more job to do and it's one of Master JibberJabber's favourite – watering! With so many tubs and containers appearing in the next couple of weeks I think he is going to be busy.