Battle positions!

I was getting quite disheartened by the disappearance of seedlings last week - something was eating them - but I'm not giving up! The garden is now getting a regular dose of coffee (which apparently does very nasty things to snails), and I'm going to attempt to win through sheer force of numbers - I'm scattering lots of the out-of-date seeds in the hope that enough will germinate and survive to result in a harvest. I really don't want to resort to pesticides, but I'm also not willing to work for snail, grub & insect food alone.

We're currently bucketing the rinse water from the washing machine out to the garden, and supplementing with town water to coax the seedlings through the warmer days. It's the first time we've watered anything in the garden for several years!

Name that seedling!

A few weeks back I scattered some out-of-date seeds in the garden beds, to see if any of them would germinate. And some of them have! I have no idea what some of the are, and some I can guess at, but I like the element of surprise!

Planting (part 1)

We bought some seeds and seedlings yesterday, but didn't get a chance to plant them (i.e. in too much hip pain after removing suckered saplings from a section of the driveway so we don't scratch the car every time we drive in). Then at about 1.30am I realised I was on preschool duty this morning, so didn't get to it until this evening. It's too dark to take photos now, but I'm really hoping something survives the snails so I can take some tomorrow!

I'm working on the theory of random planting confusing the wee beasties, and have interspersed various brassica species (cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts) with various salad greens, and there are still beetroot seedlings, various herbs and seeds to go in, plus the marigolds and petunias the children chose. I ran out of light, so the rest will have to wait. The husband was conscripted to cut the tops off large soft drink bottles, which will hopefully provide some protection from the snails. Unfortunately there weren't enough bottles to cover everything, so we'll see how effective they were in the morning light.

Germination test

I came across a way to test whether seed is still viable. Dampen some paper towel, and sprinkle a few seeds from the out-of-date packet across it. Roll it up, put it in a plastic bag and keep it somewhere warm (like on the top of the fridge or some electronic equipment that stays on). Check after two days, then at least once a day after that, making sure the paper doesn't completely dry out.

If half of the seed germinates, plant more closely than usual for the same yield.

I guess you could also plant the germinated seeds (still on the paper towel). Even if nothing germinated, I'd probably throw it all in the garden anyway, just in case!

Seeding

Come hell or high water, I was going to plant SOMETHING yesterday. I had a box of out-of-date seed packs stashed away, and figured that was better than nothing, so went through it to find what had the best chance of survival at this time of year if indeed it managed to germinate at all.

This is what I came up with (and I know some of them aren't very suitable for the end of summer, but let's give it a go!): turnips, pumpkin (butternut and Golden Nugget), climbing beans, bush beans, snow peas, sweet corn, parsnip, beetroot, onions, broccoli, pak choi, cauliflower & peas.

The small people of the family were keen to help, so if these seeds germinate, I will get my wild garden - I encouraged them to move the mulch aside (with gloves on) so the seeds would at least be somewhere in the vicinity of the soil, but then they spotted a spider, and it was seed scattering from then on. We watered them in, so with a bit of luck most of them managed to work their way down through the mulch.

Regardless of how successful a technique it is (and realistically the odds aren't good!), it was fun, Miss Tizz and the X-man enjoyed themselves, and I feel like I've achieved something over the weekend.