hi everyone
I'm trying to establish a no-dig forest
garden in my back garden in Southampton, England (zone 9) with mixed success so far.
I was hoping to grow a lot of spinachy greens like Fat Hen and Good King Henry but it's not so easy to get them started.
I germinated the Fat Hen and have about 5 plants in the ground now (out of maybe 20 planted originally). Many died as seedlings - they are super fragile and thin when they're young. Anyway, Fat Hen self-seeds so hopefully next year I will have a more significant number of plants.
Good King Henry is a perrenial plant with edible green leaves a bit like spinach. I'd really like to get a load of it growing but NONE of my seeds have even germinated. I've tried all sorts of things. I did the float test (apparently viable seeds float, dead ones sink in
water). I put the
seed tray in the fridge for about 6 weeks. And then I put them in a nice warm cold frame. Nothing seems to work - they're just not coming up.
Does anyone have
experience of growing Good King Henry in southern England? any tips? I got my seeds from Green Chronicle. (All their other seeds worked fine so the problem is likely me not them!)