Little Pots of Hope

Two and a half hours later, in the drizzle of a Sunday afternoon, and the greenhouse is chocker with little pots of hope (",)

Now bear in mind I only have a small greenhouse that leans up against a wall, barely any room to swing a dibber and once there are four tomato plants potted up in it, two either side of the door, it is being fully utilised for the summer!

But still, I now have pots and pots of slightly damp compost with a seed dibbed into each one, sprinkled with a little bit of Mother Nature's magic. In 10-14 days time I will know what percentage of success I will have had starting off nasturtiums, runner beans, peas, and climbing French beans for the canes awaiting in the legume veg bed; cabbage, purple sprouting broccolli, kale and brussels sprouts for the brassica veg bed ; pumpkins for the allotment raised beds for our annual 'who can grow the biggest?' competition; dwarf French beans for the planters on the patio; sunflowers of dwarf and Titan varieties for our annual 'who can grow the smallest/ tallest?' Sunflower competition; as well as ornamental alliums and Orlaya grandiflora (French cow parsley) for my garden flower borders.

And that is not all. In a planter on the patio Pak Choi and salad onion seeds were also sown, ready to pick just a few steps from the kitchen door. Potential stir fry ingredients that couldn't be fresher from field (or planter) to wok to table.

Each seed tucked in with everything it needs to trigger life. Although a little bit of sun wouldn't go amiss.

Mother Nature's magic never ceases to amaze me that within the tiniest seed there is the potential for life. A sunflower seed the size of 1cm long that can grow into a 10 foot tall sunflower with a seed head a foot wide in diameter containing hundreds of seeds with the potential of life. Even the tiniest seeds, such as the brassica seeds, have enough nutrition stored in them so that it can survive until it can feed itself.

And there is more. I still need to pot up my sweet pea seeds, which are still in need of overnight soaking. And I have yet to decide where and in what to sow the spearmint seeds which is a plant that requires careful containment. Time is ticking, decisions, decisions ...

Let the miracle begin ...