OK, not really news, but it comes as a bit of a suprise to me that I can actually grow stuff, and the soil doesn't become barren and un-life-sustaining at my mere touch. In the past when I've had plants, they died. Unfortunately, without exception.
My landlord is quite knowledgeable about gardening, and is very encouraging about us taking an interest in the garden ;) Last year, he gave us some Lupin plants that he had grown from seeds from his own garden, and I stuck them in the garden, sure that even this short contact with me would kill them.
It didn't ;)
Towards the end of the summer, the lovely flowers all went away, but there were a lot of seed pods. (this was the first time I'd actually noticed a seed pod on a plant, now I'm seeing them everywhere) So for a laugh, I decided to experiment and see if I put the seeds into some soil, would they grow?
One did:
All the other pots in that picture had the seeds in them too, but they hadn't come up yet, so I got fed up and chucked the soil into the garden. Maybe they'll grow out there.
But this experiment got me quite interested in the whole seed planting thing. I've now filled up all my window sill space with plant pots. Mostly containing herbs like rocket, dill, basil, thyme and mint, but I planted some wallflowers as well, from seed pods from the wallflowers in my garden. Those are coming along great!
The herbs are growing really well too. I've planted 4 pots of rocket, cos I love the taste, and I've been using that in various dishes. I've used some of my basil too, in a meatloaf I made the other day (yes, I've been cooking too. Not worthy of a blog post yet, but me! Cooking!!) I haven't used any of the mint yet, but I think I'd like to experiment with that and try making some mint tea or something.
This new interest is very strange for me. I've always been so not interested in plants. I could point out "that's a rose bush" and "that plant is red/blue/yellow" or whatever, but that was it! And I wasn't interested in knowing any more than that. Now I keep asking my bf's mum what plants are as we pass them, and I even took some seed pods off a laburnum tree that I was walking past in the street, and planted them. They're growing too!
It's really quite amazing when I think about it, that I can take a little tiny thing like a seed, stick it in some dirt, put it on the windowsill and give it some water every couple of days, and it'll grow into an actual plant!!
This experiment hasn't even cost me much either. I got a lot of plant pots from people I know, and got some other cheap ones from the shop. I use ice cream tubs as saucers for under the plant pots that don't have actual proper saucers. The compost cost less than £5, and I got most of the herb seeds from the pound shop, where it's £1 for a pack of 6 different types of seeds.
I don't think I'll be getting overly obsessed with gardening like my other hobbies, but it's interesting for the moment, and I'm learning a lot about nature, something I hadn't really paid much attention to before. I seem to be getting all domesticated in my old age!!
2 comments:
I love to garden, there's nothing nicer than communing with nature in your own little private piece of Mother Earth! Sometimes it's a battle, especially when slugs find the tender shoots of that pretty plant you'd nurtured from seed, or transported home from a loved ones garden, but lovely sitting in the sun, admiring the fruits of your labour and maybe enjoying a glass of something cool :) I like to craft in my garden too! Your seeds look like they're coming along splendidly!
I'm not big on gardening but I admire people who do it. I love to look at pretty plants! :)
Good luck with your seedlings. I hope they grow up soon.
Post a Comment