Growing Wishes

Over at my blog A Woman of the Soil I have been contemplating what new varieties of veg to try next year, but here in the Rosebank garden I shall be planting mainly annuals from seed.  All of them have been bought (at end-of-season prices i.e. very cheap)  with bees and butterflies in mind.
The only problem is, is that they are seed mixes, so I can't be sure what will come up.

I don't think I will do much direct sowing, which I think is a bit hit and miss - but I have read somewhere that if you sow them now in trays with an aerated lid on, then they will appear when the weather warms up and can be transplanted.

I also hope I will be able to extend my wild flower border around the allotment garden - so I think there is going to be an awful lot of seed-sowing going on in the spring.

With a bit of luck and a following wind there will be a lot of nectar-providers which will give a mass of colour for several weeks all summer creating  a pretty wildlife habitat and a sea of seed heads later on in the season.

I also picked up a packet of first year flowering mixed perennials which should be an economical way to fill in the gaps in the herbaceous borders. 

All this talk of seed-sowing has got me champing at the bit ready to get back into the swing of the gardening year.  There are some great pictures where a designer has used wild flower borders on spare pieces of ground around Sheffield,  @ Noels Garden blog.