A Chocolate Garden? Sounds like something only found in Heaven!! This garden will be a feast for the eyes (hopefully) more so than the palette (with the exception of a couple of plants). What gave me the inspiration for this new project was a plant I purchased at the end of last summer. It was a cute perennial with little yellow flowers and brown centers that promised the fragrance of chocolate. I did a little searching on line and found a wonderful site. Chocolate Flower Farm.
www.chocolateflowerfarm.com. How did I never hear of this before?? I decided to purchase the Chocolate Garden Favorites bag that comes with seeds for 6 flower varieties as well as a delicious chocolate smelling votive. In it were seeds for more Chocolate Flowers, Sunflowers, Violas (edible), Hollyhocks, and Sweet William. It was to include Pincushion Flowers as well, but Chocolate Wild Carrot was substituted. I was excited about this because I really wanted those but didn't get them because I thought there was a large extra shipping charge associated with them. When I told my husband, he said, "That's a weed, you know?". Leave it to the farmer!! Anyway, I also purchased seeds for Nasturtiums, Dahlias, and a beautiful Rudbeckia 'Green Wizard.
Each variety comes packaged and labeled so well. There are also sowing instructions included with each . There are six of them that require they be sown indoors 6-8 weeks before planting. I was going to start this last week but didn't get to it. Hopefully they will first actually sprout, and then more importantly, grow well enough to be transplanted outside. I tend to over care for plants by giving them too much water. I promise to be more careful this time!!
I purchased this little Jiffy Greenhouse for my seeds. I followed the directions to add water and boy do those little pellets take so much in!! Within a few minutes, they were ready!!
I'm sure there is an appropriate tool that "real" greenhouse gardeners use to fluff up the pellets. I don't have one of whatever that is, so toothpicks it was for me!! I used them to push back some of the mesh, fluff up the dirt, and gently cover the seeds.
Since many of these seeds are super tiny, I also used the tip of the toothpick to pick them up and put them into the pellet. I put two seeds in some of the pellets because I only had another large greenhouse and I didn't want to use it for just a few seeds. I'm hoping I don't regret that.
All planted, labeled, and ready to be placed in our south facing bow window!!
Obviously, it will have to be lot sunnier outside than it is today for the poor little things to sprout!! I put Winston in charge, but he's too busy napping in his bowl to be much help!!
Wish me luck!! I'll keep you updated with pictures!! Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful weekend.
Until next time.....
Blessings...
Melissa
