After repeatedly insisting to anyone that would listen - no make that anyone around - that I was now a gardener, and asking raised beds for my birthday, I had to bite the bullet last week and order my carefully selected veg and flower seeds!
All South facing windowsills are already filled with sweet peas which really need to be supported, just haven't got round to it yet and lots of red Flanders poppies. The Flanders poppies were lovingly separated out of the seed tray last week, and put into their own little cells - well.... kind of... They looked so small by themselves so after carefully pulling seeds out by 'true leaves' (just learnt that term it means not the seed leaves) I grouped at least 3 little plants together and rubbed them between my fingers to really gell them together. Took me about 5 hours to get half way through the tray - when the most unlikely flower expert you will ever meet - Ant the stone wall builder -arrived for a dukey cup of tea.
Gleefully he informed my that I had probably murdered all the poppies as you were not supposed to touch the stems - opps!!! And stems are supposed to be kept straight - not screwed and stabbed into the holes made for them with pens and the like!!! Silly marrar!!
They do look like they are slowly dying off on the windowsill now but I'm determined to keep them in my care until riger-mortis has set in!
So thats that. Think we have established that I'm not going to be a natural. So as not to lose face, my experts and unwilling mentors, Farmer John and Ant the stone wall builder will have to be plied with free beer all summer to try and prise some, well make that any, advice at all from them.
Off now to study more books. Everyone seems to just assume that you will know which way to insert a sunflower seed, (on its side? Pointy bit up?) or what is a seed in the pot puri jumble that has been lableled Africian Marigold by DT Brown. Need a book simpler than gardening for dummies.... Hmmm....
Hi Linzi, well done on getting a blog!! I know what you mean about those sunflower seeds, I had a packet of the giant sunflower seeds and planted them all the way around our fence, only about 3 out of 100 grew, I was informed I'd planted them upside down! Why do any of us start these things!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you Karie!!! Finally figured out how to subscribe to your blog and thought why not!!! Johnny is sniggering at my puny entry on the sofa as we type!!!
ReplyDeleteWhich way did you plant your sunflower seeds then? x Could it be possible that the rabbits or ducks may have eaten the seedlings? (Thats what i'm planning on blaming all my screw ups on anyway!)
I never though of the birds eating the seeds although I did poke the hole with a stick before putting them in, I planted them pointy bit down, apparantly thats where the stem sprowts from, too technical for a female I guess, we can just multi-task at everything else!!!
ReplyDeleteI wondered about sprouting the seeds first - as you would to sprout them for eating (which I can never do with sunflowers as I prefer to see them flower!)
ReplyDeleteMind you - which bit comes out first when they sprout - the root or the stem?
Anyway, in theory it's a good idea for getting a good germination rate - to sprout them indoors and then transplant out.
Good to find you blog by the way - I love to see how others are doing with their planting - reminds me to get started too!