This is one of my small forays into teaching proper gardening stuff. There are billions of books, websites and blogs that will do this better, but I am rather proud of myself here so please indulge me. Andrew didn't help me with this (if you know me at all, you will realise that is a HUGE deal)!
My visit to Mary's plot ended with her bestowing me with a big handful of Poppy seedlings from her flower border, lifted straight out of the ground with her own bare hand! Well you could have blown me over! I love poppies and although she has no idea what type or colour they are (they were a present to her as seeds) we are both excited to see what happens.
Mary had just plonked them in a pot (she's more confident at gardening than me) and I rushed over to 24a to do something with them. Now the problem was I didn't have any idea where I wanted them yet; I hadn't planted up my flower bed in 14b at this time and still hadn't thought about the little flower patches in 24a properly. So I did what any self respecting 'gardener' would do - I pricked them out and potted them on. That's the correct terminology, right?
Here is how I did it, in a photo story form....
I believe it is super important to firm the soil down in the tray before you start. Then no fancy 'dibber' for me, I am but a humble apprentice and a pencil works wonders, you make holes for the seedlings' roots and firm them in. I think watering the soil before I transplanted the seedlings was pretty pointless, as I watered them in after too. So I scrapped that part when I did it again, this time into singular modules.
I may give these away to a lucky person, 4 here, 6 there; I don't know. Thing is I had so many and had to throw away about 10 other seedlings as I just didn't know what to do with them all! A handful is a lot I now realise.
However, there you are, a lesson in horticulture from me to you, with love.
Gardening is great for sharing, isn't it? And I do love poppies. Maybe you could put me on a plane and I'd drop by to get some of your extras. It's only a short jaunt from Canada to Ireland -- easy peasy, right?
ReplyDeleteTip: sometimes you can be a guerilla gardener with your extras, and pop them in some sad nearby corner. Every time you pass when your poppies are in bloom, you'll have a secret smile.
Now to me that just proves you're a real gardener - I still can't throw any seedlings away and they sit in pots until they are too big and die - a much crueler (sp?) death than chucking when they are tiny!
ReplyDeleteHelen - you can surely have the extras, but only if you put ME on that plane over to Canada, hahaha. I think I'll do the guerilla gardening, someone else did it with tulips and it was lovely to see their sweet faces in the hedgerow. I think it's a great idea!
ReplyDeleteMichelle - wow, me, 'a real gardener', thank you!!!! Yep, chucking them away when they're only babies does seem so cruel and you never know, some one could need them, you could find a space for them or like Helen says, there's always guerilla gardening!