It is all very well for those who live in Cornwall to give you the sound advice about waiting until April to sow hardy annuals if you live further north (I am talking to you Mr Higgledy).  For me living in chillier Oxford, there is too strong a longing to get everything started  to resist opening up my annual seed packets in earlier March. So on my windowsills and cold frames are a mixture of the sturdy and the leggy – the latter living proof of the soundness of the advice.

Maybe potting on up to their seed leaves will sort things out. Even if they do have to be composted, the hope they gave emerging from compost is probably worth the sacrifice.

No time for sowing, plotting or planting today, but tomorrow is set aside for digging new beds at the plot. Also for ordering seeds from Derry Watkins from SpecialPlants which I have visited on various (always sunny) days. Have made a start and my basket is pretty full already (and I am only on the page for C) so perhaps some cool prioritising tomorrow is needed. Looking at the unusual range of choices on her website, makes me rethink my decision to just sell flowers because there is a lot of pleasure to be had sowing and growing on new and beautiful plants.