Spring already?

The arrival of Spring is, as usual a surprise. Not that it doesn't happen pretty reliably at about this time every year, but of course, the garden projects that I was cheerfully predicting in Autumn would be done by Spring remain unfinished. And now I have to divert my efforts to those seasonal tasks that just won't wait, like planting seeds.

All thoughts of plant care and garden maintenance disappear when I look at a seed catalogue. My mind goes straight from buying the seed packet, with its seductive images of perfect flowers and vegetables, directly to superb results in my flower beds or on my plate, with no thought for the effort needed from me in between. So I always buy too many. Quite how I'm going to manage, especially with my living room furniture currently taking up most of the space in my conservatory, I have no idea.

But anyway, today I make a start. Here's seeds of perennial poppies, chili peppers, and tomatoes. And for good measure, here's some fuschia cuttings I took last Autumn. When cutting the plant down for Winter, I thought it might be a good idea to stick some of the twigs into some compost to see if they sprouted, as an insurance against the parent plant getting frozen to death outside. So I stuck them in a pot, covered it with a plastic bag and ignored it for the Winter. Result: two new plants.