Arwen Long wrote:

susan, do you start the seeds outside or in?

I've done both. Last year I started everything from seed directly sowed
in the bed. This year, I decided to start some plants (like tomatos)
from seeds indoors in peat pots so decided to start some alyssum also.
To be honest, after doing this, I prefer sowing them directly in the
beds as it's easier. I don't want to mess with the number of plants in
pots that it takes to establish the full bed coverage.

Also, they reseed themselves which is very nice as the beds are once
again covered with alyssum as a ground cover and I didn't have to do
anything!

My decision to start from seed was mainly because I can be cheap at
times. *smile* I didn't want to pay the price for the number of flats
I would have needed where as seeds were *very* inexpensive. On top of
that, it also gave me some personal satisfaction to start them from seed.

Oh yeah, in case anyone is interested, the ones I started in peat pots
went into a different bed as an experiment to see if I really wanted
them in that bed.

Susan
s h simko at duke dot edu

On Thu, 1 May 2003, Susan H. Simko wrote:
Arwen Long wrote:

susan, do you start the seeds outside or in?

I've done both. Last year I started everything from seed directly sowed
in the bed. This year, I decided to start some plants (like tomatos)
from seeds indoors in peat pots so decided to start some alyssum also.
To be honest, after doing this, I prefer sowing them directly in the
beds as it's easier. I don't want to mess with the number of plants in
pots that it takes to establish the full bed coverage.

Wonderful. When do you seed them? I threw some seeds on the ground a while
back (tried to wait till the "date of last expected frost") and am looking
for green things.

Arwen

Arwen Long wrote:

Wonderful. When do you seed them? I threw some seeds on the ground a while
back (tried to wait till the "date of last expected frost") and am looking
for green things.

You know, I really don't remember as I sowed directly into the beds last
year. I believe it was past the last frost date because this was an
entirely new bed last year. I don't thik I even started putting it in
until mid April. Then, I put the Blue Girl roses, petunias and dianthus
before I sowed the alyssum. My guess, it was probably right around the
beginning of May last year.

OTOH, the alyssum I started in the peat pots were put into the bed at
the beginning of April and the alyssum that reseeded itself from last
year in the "Blue Girl bed" is starting to bloom already.

Susan
s h simko at duke dot edu