Back in my early teens there used to be reference on the news to the EU butter mountain which bemused me. I had these quite grotesque images of oozing mountains of butter. I was reminded of these this weekend when I emptied out my seed box.
In my last post I wrote about my lack of engagement with things and how unsettled I felt. Writing the post helped me to sort my feelings out, as it so often does, and as one of the commentators so rightly said naming the problem out loud is a real step forward in itself. So Sunday afternoon I confronted the seed box that had been brooding on the coffee table sending me accusatory glances. I had dug it out a few weeks before in response to Anna, of Green Tapestry’s, comment that she needed to check her seed box before ordering seeds. How terribly sensible I thought and something I really should do. When I had been feeling more positive a few weeks back I had spent time on the Sarah Raven website putting endless packets of seeds into my virtual shopping basket. Well of course I needed some zinnia seeds as they were wonderful last year, oh and I fancy some cosmos and some ammi again, oh and maybe some nigella, what about some foxgloves to get going as they are biennial, and maybe some dahlias from seed and so it went on.
I was stunned on tipping out the seed box on just how many packets I had managed to cram in over the last few years and these didn’t include some recent special purchases. It really was a seed mountain and had been created just as the EU butter mountain had – bought with no prospect of being sown. How terrible and wasteful. Sorting through I found 5 packets of assorted cosmos, a couple of foxgloves, nigella and all sorts of other things. In fact the only thing that I didn’t have that was on my wish list were zinnias. So I have decided to only buy zinnias this year and to use up what’s in the seed box.
It has to be acknowledged that some of these seeds have been there a while and may not be viable any more. However, being someone who likes a challenge and gets a perverse thrill out of making something work that isn’t meant to I found myself really taken with the idea. So much so that I set to there and then and sowed 5 packets of seeds which needed cold to help them germinate – hopefully the freezing temperatures we have had the last few days will do the trick. It may even be that by sowing this eclectic mix of seeds I achieve the real cottage garden feel that I am looking for.
