It looked like rain would come in the night and it smelt like rain this morning but no rain came so today will be a watering day. With hoses.
But I can’t water the pig garden. It is too big. Probably a third of an acre. And. Miserably it looks like our flowering pigs field is just growing weeds. And not a good weed. There may be some edible wild flowers coming up behind the weeds. But I am less hopeful now.
The yellow beans had a really sad germination rate. I barely see any. And I was depending on those for good cover. I am tempted to write to the company I bought them from. Most disappointing.
Just goes to show that a beautiful website means nothing at all. Though I fear that long week of hot dry weather was a contributing culprit.
I will let it grow. There are sunflowers coming up here and there and the wheat has come through so we will let nature take over.
It is too late in our short growing season to replant now. And my seed budget is spent.
You just can’t win them all.
I was not depending on this garden to feed the pigs – we have plenty of restaurant scraps this season. It would have been a wonderful supplement to their diet. They will still come out here (the pigs) once the weeds are tall. It’s just bad luck that it won’t be the edible garden I had envisaged.
And on that sorry note.
I am going to get going out to work.
Have a good one.
Celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
21 responses to “Sad Seed Germination”
That is so disappointing and a loss. Hopefully the seed company will give you a refund of some amount. If you’d like a couple seed company recommendations I can send you their sites. One has been around f for a long time and my dad and the old guys in my hometown only used them for their potato sets and other things. I have ordered from them too for my little garden (small amount) and always quality. Another is a small family (mom, dad and 2 kids) who grow and harvest their own seeds. I love supporting a family! I can message you with those or post here if you’d like them.
It would be wonderful if you could post your seed company recommendations here! We’ve also had ‘issues’ with seeds we ordered not sprouting! Thank you!
it must be hard, not knowing if things that you had planned on growing, perform miserably and it does have an impact on the whole. hoping nature, with your support, will come through for you.
I bought two different wildflower mixes for my beds and while both are growing nicely, now that I have cleared out some of the millet that was overtaking everything else, it’s been interesting to see the difference in each mix. Radish and mustard is dominant with sweet peas coming in strong as well…where are all the others listed? Were they ever really in the mix? I think unless you use your own seed you always take a chance on what you’re really going to get especially when the claim is “mixed seeds”. I just try to tell myself- learn for next season. I am just thrilled to see the bees and butterflies back!
I know how frustrating it is to sow seeds with a vision in mind (yours would have been beautiful as well as useful) and then see all those little things come to just about nothing. I think you are right and that terrible hot week with the sun beating down every day probably did in most of those little bitties just up out of the ground. Most of my seeds did very little for me (and that was with daily watering!) but that’s not unusual, I think I just don’t have a “good hand” for seeds. But hope spring eternal and you can’t win them all.
We are having serious mole issues here this year! I mean serious! They are everywhere! I guess that means our soil is getting more and more fertile, but they are wrecking havoc in our raised beds. Any and all suggestions from the Farmy readers for mole control are welcome!!!
Try planting Castor Beans as a barrier! I recall hearing (many!) years ago that burrowing rodents abhor the smell of their roots. Will look for more specifics and get back to you asap, ‘k?
Okay, I will give it a try! Thanks for the suggestion! Someone recently suggested putting sticks of juicy fruit gum into their tunnels. I’m going to give that a try too! 😃
When this happens I usually look to next year!
It’s been a weird growing year here too! It was a cool damp spring, in spite of a warm winter. I found a really nice seed company (though no good for America), who gave me a 50% discount when I bought more than 5 items and they send out free gifts of additional seeds with your order! The worst problem this year (aside from slugs) has been poor quality compost, now that peat has been banned.
Win some, loose some…….but I Know you will never give up the game.
Jo
I have had the same result over the years. I am in southwest Ohio and with climate change making our temps much higher and drought a yearly thing, I order seeds from High Country which specializes in seeds for the dryer parts of this country. I have much better success and I plant up to the first of July in succession planting. Also you talked about the biting flies. I hate them too. I use Ben’s wipes and they work great. One wipe will cover any body parts that are not covered. Hope that helps. Seeds for dryer parts of the country and bug wipes make my summer much happier.
This is excellent! Thank you! Most especially for the tip to buy seeds that are drought resistant seeds. Something we have never considered here in Illinois.
I rely a lot on seed saving and plants self-seeding because they pick their preferred spots and conditions. It’s interesting how the nature of the garden changes. For years in winter the coriander self-sowed like a weed but not celery or flat leaf parsley. Now it’s the opposite and there’s no coriander coming up at all. I’ve never had much luck with wild/flower mixes and even in green manure mixes one seed type seems to proliferate. Despite the challenges we still garden.
Damn. It’s so disappointing, isn’t it?
Horrible. Right? It will be interesting to see what develops.
My back yard is in a constant state of seeding, sprouting and sustaining; the chooks spill a little grain when they are out on the grass in their tractor, it sprouts, and when they pass that way again, they fall on the green sprouts like manna from heaven. It works best in winter, when we don’t mow because the grass doesn’t grow fast enough. I do wish your pig mix had worked out, I love the idea of all that different nutrition. I’d send you seeds for dry conditions (like most of Australia) if I thought border control in either country would let me…
You have got an excellent system. I wish it had worked out too. But you know about plans and mice and men.
I hear some central states had rain for 4th July. I hope you got a tiny share too.
This is the best reply on the internet. I just sent money through her PayPal link to spend how she sees fit on the farmy. My seeds have done this this year too.
https://www.paypal.com/donate?token=y8SJV1lzrz-a3D6gipjafxPduiXxuBVjU3g747w1a5gpS28BoVI8C63hDWP_bC5uYmWvOFpHFx_2CvMH&locale.x=US
I used this link to donate, even though I’m in Canada