Sowing Day

I don't have many traditions but a very important one for me is the day that I sow my sweet pea seeds. Until 1995 I always did it on November 5th but I increasingly found that the seedlings were ready to plant out before the ground was warm enough so its now become a traditional activity for new year's day. This year I'm trying Irish sweet peas for the first time with seeds supplied free courtesy of the Cooltonagh nursery in County Londonderry as a reward for my winning entries in the national sweet pea society photography competition. The seeds came in 15 hand written brown envelopes. I've also increased the number of seeds sown from 120 to 150. If we get a 95% germination rate as we did last year then this could be a bumper year.