It’s only February, I know! I’m still starting to think about my roof garden. I want to succeed in growing chive this year. Last year I started in March and kept all the pots in the kitchen. This might have been too warm for the seeds because chive’s a cold-germination plant.

Today I received my order from Grünbrock.de, two Aries sowing kits for herbs respectively used in the Italian (thyme, oregano and basil) and German (parsley, lovage and chive) cuisine. I had them last year as well and can only recommend them. I grew pretty magnificent herbs from these seeds! Well, except for the chive … let’s see if I manage better this year.

The kits come with compostable pots and no-peat soil tablets. I put the tablets into the pot, added water to make them expand, and then planted the chive seeds under a thin layer of soil. Since chive likes the cold, I put them on the windowsill in the staircase outside our apartment. I thought that might be a good compromise: it isn’t warm like in our apartment, but I won’t risk the temperature dropping below zero like on our roof terrace.

Now we wait for the seedlings to sprout. Hopefully. I’ll tell you about my success (or failure) next months, together with a more comprehensive plan for my roof garden this year.