An Ambitious Project : The Self Sowing Garden

This year just before the onset of Spring I got to planning my crop rotation for the vegetable growing season in front of me.

While I was drooling errr I mean pouring over heirloom seed catalogues I got to thinking about the nature of heirloom seeds and their ability not only to set seed but to do their fair share of self seeding.

I have brocolli Rabb sprouting up all over the place and I haven’t resown any it’s done it all by itself. So with this in mind an idea began to form all by itself in my mind…

What if this year instead of diligently sowing seeds in stations I mix them all together and scatter them, also known as broadcasting, all over the beds in a wonton abandon kinda way and let Mother Nature do the hard work of selecting what grows where as indeed She would on the wild.

An ambitious project indeed, for I had overlooked the residual seeds already in the ground waiting for spring from the previous crops who gave me such an abundance of seeds that I still have then adorning every space possible waiting for me to seperste pods & seeds.

Well I am happy to report that things have really taken off in a jungle kinda way. I have sunflowers tomatoes popping up all over the place and the beds are lust with green foliage

I admit it’s a little scary looking at all the well ordered confusion and I have been panicked al the huge undertaking of thinning, cutting and defoliating all the tomatoes and beans so I can see the soil beneath!!

Bur, what I have learnt I should have known…trust in Mother Nature, after all She has been doing this job since time began. Now there’s  a thought…

I have carefully unjungled one bed and I am amazed at how healthy things are. Granted some dwarf beans have suffered from damp and have rotted, but these were in the thick of the action in the middle of the bed. But the tomatoes are flourishing and so are the climbing beans.

Now I have restored a bit of order, let in the air and light and replenished the soil it will be interesting to see if the smaller slower growing cultivars will germinate.

Time will tell, but I am seeing a time when I only need to harvest and feed the soil….

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