It doesn’t seem they do well direct sown, probably because the spot is a sandy dust bowl and I don’t go out there often enough to keep the seeds moist. They’re fairly drought tolerant but probably need to be a bit more established first.

Suspected that so I’ve already been raising more in paper cups and a foil tray and today planted out 3 nasturtium seedlings I grew inside. The mix of nasturtium, alyssum and sunflowers I sowed in the foil pan show signs of things coming up. I also got some kind of poppies.

I wish I’d been able to weed and dig over the dirt properly but I don’t think I can plus there’s a weird hard compacted layer of sand that would be difficult to break through. And that stupid tree is still sucking everything up and obstructing with its roots. Even if the plants were safe there (they’re kind of not - hence cheap disposable annual seeds) and I was (I’m not - hence limited trips out there) it would take a bit of work and time to make it suitable for growing food.

I wish I’d done this with natives and maybe later I will.

But I saw another native bee buzzing around my zucchinis so I might be getting somewhere.