Gardening in 2010

Finally I did some gardening! It's been several months since I last did anything in the garden other than escorting the dog back in from her bathroom break (unsupervised breaks end up with her sneaking next door). Well, truly told, I didn't actually do this in the garden--I planted four kinds of seeds: cabbage, celeriac, broad beans, and sweet peas. The first two are in plastic trays on my kitchen windowsill. The last two are in toilet paper tubes and rolled newspaper tubes.

I folded a sheet of newspaper in half the long way, then using a narrow jar as a mold, rolled the newspaper into a tube and folded the edges over on one side:I think I made about thirty of them:I filled them up with potting soil separately and packed them into a seed tray:
That's one tray of broad beans and one of sweet peas, now residing in my cold frame. I've had very little luck with planting seeds straight into the ground so I almost always plant in trays first: seeds planted in newspaper or toilet paper tubes can be put into the ground once they're big enough; no need to peel away the paper/cardboard first. Since beans and peas of all descriptions dislike their roots being disturbed, this is the ideal way of keeping them alive and happy.

Fingers crossed my sweet peas actually sprout: I harvested my own seeds last fall.