First Planting of 2012 Chamomile from Seed

On New Year's Eve, we had beautiful weather, perfect for digging around and doing hard work of changing and edging garden beds.

I first thought of edging my front flower bed with bricks last summer, but just could NOT get up the energy to do that much digging and lifting in 100 degree weather. New Year's Eve was perfect weather for that sort of hard, laborious work.

I spent an hour laying the bricks and digging them into the soil so that they would be stable. Then I weeded (a desperately needed and way past-due job.) After that, I went to the back with my wheel barrow and loaded some of my beautiful, rich, black compost into the wheel barrow from my compost containers. Next, I cleaned up my mess of weeds. I watered thoroughly. And, finally, I poured the chamomile seeds into the palm of my hand and brushed them off my hands onto the top of the soil.

Chamomile needs light to germinate, so I didn't want them below the surface of the soil. They also like at least one day/night of freezing weather in order to germinate properly. In southern Alabama, you cannot always guarantee freezing weather, but we were expecting to get a couple nights of hard freeze on January second and third, so I figured this was my best chance to plant the chamomile.

It did freeze by the way. Brrr. It has been cold for this area of the country. Not cold for Iowa, but cold for this area. (I lived in Iowa as a child, so I know what I am talking about. Iowa is REALLY cold.)

I hope, hope, hope the chamomile does well for me. I have been thinking about these plants since last year and have read several different things about them that made me want some. Daphne's Dandelions web site speaks about them several times, and the harvested flowers are edible, beautiful and she made it sound like I might be able to do this. (Ie: she describes them as self-seeding, which to my mind means: Easy.)

Several books I read suggested them, as well. I like the way they look daisy-like, and the way they relate to the read-aloud book my girls like. (My son has never liked the book,The Tale of Peter Rabbit, but the girls love it.) It's kind of like a living memory of some fun read-aloud times.)

On a side note, I planted St. John's Wort in that same bed last year on a whim, and after weeding, and adding the compost, that St. John's Wort looks fantastic! It is supposed to have beautiful yellow flowers in June, but I bought mine in July, so I haven't seen it bloom. It looks healthy enough now that I bet it will bloom this year. It is the small plant in the front part of the picture.

The above picture shows the end result.