Micro Gardening

Lock down has left us stuck at home with extra hours to fill and limited resources and opportunities to fill them, so many people have turned to gentle domestic activities like baking and gardening to bring simple pleasures back into our lives. With many of us in cities without gardens this could feel restrictive, but even on the tiniest scale growing plants is so rewarding, particularly from seeds.

With spring arriving again after a year in lock down it’s a great time to make a start on a micro garden with plenty of options to sow at this time, particularly if protected indoors. Garden centres are still open and many have ecommerce platforms if you can’t get to one easily: I ordered my seeds and seedling compost from Suttons.

In an effort to avoid creating anymore waste than is critical, I’m using old packaging such as egg boxes, jars and mushroom trays as my planters, and I’m collecting wastewater (for example from running the tap briefly for hot water) to water the plants.

For the time of year, I’ve decided to sow a mix of herbs (thyme, oregano, basil), some decorative grasses called bunny tails, nasturtiums because they’re satisfyingly easy, and ranunclus which come as little tubers that you soak before planting. I look expectantly at the soil everyday, willing the green shoots to nudge their way out.