Wallflowers under glass

In my compulsion to keep sowing I unearthed the seed box from the cupboard under the stairs and found the saved wallflower seed.  The wallflowers, which must have come from my family, lasted two years as I recall, and when they got too large and straggly we let them go to seed.

I checked in a reference book that this was the right time of year to sow and then went to the potting shed and filled two seed trays with compost.  My husband's experience told him that they would not germinate in such a cool place unless covered by glass and he found two sheets.  (Probably recycled from an old fridge.)  

Under the glass the wallflowers did well and germinated within a week.  They are bi-annual and require patience.  The related rocket, an annual salad crop has been slow this cool and rainy season and only now is beginning to sporadically come to life in our 'salad crib' alongside the Little Gem lettuce and radishes.

Meanwhile my husband has lifted our little trough of tulips from the front gatepost border and left them by the back hedge to die down.  He inserted  and netted another one sown with a mix of saved wild flower seeds and a part packet of free seed (the annual Clary - salvia horminum) for the pollinators.  

This is how we live now, protecting what we sow, mostly saving and sowing again.  The days of filling our front border with bedding plants have gone.  We are returning to the traditional stuff of gardens like ours - Sweet Williams and wallflowers.  We split what we can - gifts of perennials from friends and the occasional purchase like phlox, and in turn pass on where we can - mint, Michaelmas daisies, golden oregano.

Now for a packet of fresh 'Rocket Runway' and let us hope for the best.