In the garden now: sowing hardy annuals
There are many ways to be in the garden. My favorite is actively gardening. In September, then, it can feel that there isn’t much to “do.” There are tasks, to be sure, but the making is somewhat over. It’s already been done. Done, or possibly past. If ignored, many things on the to-do list will simply set seed and fold into the earth. Thus, this late summer-to-fall becomes a wonderful time to just be. The etiolated shadows of plants at the end of their cycle start to appear stretched along the stones as the sun changes its aspect in the sky. There is now a distinct rustling as the breeze moves among dried seed pods. The sun is still warm, though, and we can have some of our sunniest and hottest days during this month.
As much as I love the languid light and closing in, I tend to favor the start of things. The potential, the puzzle of growth pattern-making and the attempt to create with the natural world. In many ways the purest form of this, for me, is seed sowing. I’ve been known to sow seeds at the reasonable limit of growing time simply because I love it. I am not, however, always as reliable at the tending phase. Rarely does the second sowing of basil make it into the ground. Often it’s because there’s no room for said second round. Reach exceeding grasp, etc.
Enter Autumn sowing. For hardy annuals, now is the time to sow seeds to get stronger plants that will flower earlier next year. The most reliable will be those that you see self-seeding in your own neighborhood — those patches of nigella or scabiosa that return year after year. In zone 9, where I am, a lot of these “annuals” will perennialize, meaning the individual plant will live for more than one year. Here are a few that I’m sowing now:
Colombine (Aquilegia vulgaris)
Stock (Matthiola incana)
Calendula officinalis
Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascene)
Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus)
Bachelor’s buttons (Scabiosa atropurpurea)
Black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
