I'm Gardening!

Well, sort of. I planted poppy seeds today. Planting poppy seeds in March worked well last year. I saved seed from those poppies (Corn Poppies - Papaver rhoeas) and planted them by the composter. That was another idea that worked well last year. The poppies bloomed while the balsam was growing. Then the balsam blooms all summer into fall until the first frost.

I received a free packet of something called Red Poppy ("Striking red petals with black swatches that form a Maltese Cross). Those I planted in the Orange/Yellow Garden. A third variety, called Flemish Antique (Papaver paeoniflorum) from Select Seeds went into the new Cottage Garden I am creating where I had the New World Garden last year. It's supposed to look like this:

Inspired by Kasmira's winter sowing, I'm going to plant more seeds in April. I did a lot of reading this winter on seed germination. I discovered I have been operating under a false assumption for years. I always assumed that the planting temperatures referred to were air temperatures. Turns out they are SOIL temperatures. No wonder I have had problems getting certain seeds to germinate. I normally do all my planting in May when the soil has warmed up as needed by most seeds.

On my spreadsheets that I created in January, I have a column for germination info. As the seeds arrived, I recorded the requirements listed on each packet. Based on that information, I'm going to be sowing Cowslips, Bells of Ireland, Larkspur and Kiss-Me-Over-The-Garden-Gate next month. All of them either state they need cooler temperatures or should be planted in early spring rather than the usual "after last frost" or "after soil has warmed".

I am still puzzled as to when I should be planting foxglove seeds. Some sources say late summer and other sources say any time until midsummer. I've tried both and still have no foxgloves.