• A Little Bit About Me

wellywoman

~ A Life in Wellies

wellywoman

Tag Archives: growing tomatoes from seed

Hotting Up

05 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by wellywoman in Miscellaneous

≈ 44 Comments

Tags

growing tomatoes from seed, heated propagator, peace lily, Two Wests and Elliott

Heated propagator

I’m not sure the courier delivery people that visit my home understand the levels of excitement that greet them. The other day I felt the need to explain what was in the parcel to justify my reaction. Strangely when I told the delivery man it was a heated propagator he still didn’t seem to get why I should be grinning so much. I did start to tell him about the benefits it was going to bring but, as he started to inch away from the door, I realised he wasn’t a gardener.

It’s funny how I just assume everyone is as into plants as I am. For me it’s such a fundamental thing. I look at gardens that are just bare lawn, or worse, and simply cannot understand why you wouldn’t want to run out and fill it with as many plants as possible at the first opportunity. Then there are the times when I’m at a party and I start chatting about plants and I can see eyes start to glaze over. I’ve recognised they haven’t got the bug before they then say something along the lines of, “I don’t do gardens”.

Fortunately though I discovered blogging; a little late, admittedly, since some of you out there have been at it for 5 years now. At least here I can rabbit away about plants and gardens and know there are people out there that understand why I would get so excited about a heated propagator turning up on my doorstep.

I have toyed with the idea for a while now but wasn’t sure how much use I would get from it. But, after a difficult spring last year trying to get some seed to germinate I decided to go for it. Window sills can get quite warm, even at this time of year when the sun is shining on them, the problem is it isn’t a constant temperature. Whilst a lot of seeds, particularly hardy annuals, don’t really need much heat to germinate, half-hardy annuals such as tomatoes and chillies prefer a constant temperature of around 20˚c to spring into life. They also require a long growing season if they are to fruit successfully in our climate and need to be sown in February. It’s not impossible to grow these plants from seed if you don’t have a heated propagator but it does help.

It’ll be interesting to see, over the course of the next couple of months, how much of a difference the propagator will make to germination rates and the choice of plants I can grow.

Peace Lily

On a completely unrelated subject but which caused a similar amount of excitement was the discovery that my peace lily has produced a flower. I bought the plant 5 years ago, and apart from the flowers that were on it at the time, it hasn’t flowered since. I can’t say I’ve done anything differently recently that might have triggered it to finally produce a bloom. In fact, after years of TLC producing nothing remotely flower-like I resorted to a level of care just above neglect. Maybe that’s the key, perhaps I have to treat this peace lily a little bit mean.

I bought my propagator from a company called Two Wests and Elliott. It was recommended to me by my college tutor a few years ago. We were all intrigued by the name when she told us about them. The company was established by husband and wife, Christopher and Josephine West; Elliott was their dog.

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

My latest book – The Crafted Garden

My latest book - The Crafted Garden

My latest book - The Crafted Garden

My Book – The Cut Flower Patch

My Book - The Cut Flower Patch. Available to buy from the RHS online bookshop.

The Cut Flower Patch – Garden Media Guild Practical Book 2014

The Cut Flower Patch - Garden Media Guild Practical Book 2014
Follow @wellywomanblog
Instagram

Archives

  • August 2016
  • March 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011

Categories

  • autumn
  • Big Biochar Experiment
  • Book Reviews
  • British flowers
  • Bulbs
  • Christmas
  • Cold Frames
  • Countryside
  • crochet
  • Cut Flowers
  • Environment
  • Flowers
  • Food
  • Fruit
  • Garden Course
  • Garden Reviews
  • Herbs
  • House plants
  • In the Garden
  • Interview
  • Miscellaneous
  • On the plot
  • Out and About
  • Pests
  • Plant Nurseries
  • Plant of the Moment
  • Plastic Free Gardening
  • Ponds
  • Product Review
  • propagation
  • Recipes
  • RHS Flower Show
  • Roses
  • Salad
  • Scent
  • Seeds
  • Soil
  • Spring
  • Summer
  • Sustainable gardening
  • Trees
  • Uncategorized
  • Vegetables
  • Weeds
  • Wildflowers
  • wildlife
  • Winter
  • Woodland
  • Writing

Blogs I read

  • An Artists Garden
  • Annie's Little Plot
  • Backlanenotebook
  • Bean Genie
  • Flighty's Plot
  • Green Tapestry
  • Greenforks
  • Gwirrel's blog
  • Hillwards
  • Jo's Good Life
  • Leadupthegardenpath
  • My Hesperides Garden
  • Out of My Shed
  • Oxonian Gardener
  • Plantaliscious
  • The Anxious Gardener
  • Urban Veg Patch

websites I like

  • Chiltern Seeds
  • Hen and Hammock
  • Higgledy Garden
  • Plantlife
  • Sarah Raven
  • The Organic Gardening Catalogue

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • wellywoman
    • Join 4,574 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • wellywoman
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...