I will not post a picture of the collection of seeds I have acquired this season, in an attempt to protect myself from the mocking laughter of all who know me. Let’s just say that my purchases have been ambitious.

I defend myself with the evidence that seed catalogs are very very pretty, and it’s not my fault I was given a book on heirloom melons, and anyway who can blame me for wanting any and all plants dating from when the house was built. On top of which it is extremely difficult to pass up seed when you live in a county sporting seed racks in every grocery and hardware store… so let’s move on.

I am willing to post pictures of my favorites, which are the seeds sent to me by gardening friends. It doesn’t get better than receiving Chrisi’s Magic Morning Glories:

Or the mail bringing a small box wrapped in hand-drawn paper and filled with these treats:

Coincidentally while unpacking some plant pots I found an envelope of calendula seed with matching handwriting, given to me by the same Michigan friend back in 1998 when we shared a garden, years before the children who illustrated my parcel were born.

I did a viability test, soaking the seeds on wet paper towel and hoping that against the odds they would have survived over a decade. They hadn’t. I’ll compost them, the envelope as well, so that they can play their part in the cycle after all.

Meanwhile the morning glories are soaking. It’s a full moon tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 2:50 pm and is filed under garden. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.