We managed to plant 5 different flower varieties this afternoonI’m not a gardener. I have very little experience with growing things other than vegetables and herbs. But as my interest in the garden grows, and as I went to a couple of really great “Garden Centres” when I was in South Africa recently, I have become quite inspired to try and grow some flowers, especially new ones which you cannot find in Tanzania easily – if at all.
So, I came back home armed with (amongst other things !) packets and packets of flower seeds and little marker sticks. I asked Nelson, one of our gardeners, to please fill about a 100 or so plastic planting bags with good, rich soil for me and this afternoon Nelson, Hemmed (our other gardener) and Justin helped me to plant the first “batch” of seeds (with a little help from my daughter and one of our dogs, Dibble – who you have yet to meet !).
The gardeners were quite amused at my scribblings on the coloured sticks. Seeing as they can’t read English (and some of them can’t read at all) I thought that the coloured markers would be easy for them to understand e.g. “Hemmed, the bags with the yellow sticks in them don’t need a lot of water, but the bags with the pink sticks do, okay ?” My instructions were met with amused nods all round and I bet they are going to get them all mixed up in no time, so I will have to keep a beady eye on things.
Anyway, today we planted 5 different types of seeds (with many more to follow over the next couple of days), which were -:
Hollyhock (“Chater’s Double Mixed” variety)
Bellis Perennis (Double Daisy)
Snapdragon (“Magic Carpet” variety)
Pansy (“Cape of Storms” variety)
Primula Malacoides (Mixed)
Our little ‘nursery’ is set up under the trees at the back of the garden, and I hope that all the seeds germinate and then we will be able to transplant the seedlings into flower beds in the main garden.
So watch this space, as I’ll be doing regular garden updates !
So, I came back home armed with (amongst other things !) packets and packets of flower seeds and little marker sticks. I asked Nelson, one of our gardeners, to please fill about a 100 or so plastic planting bags with good, rich soil for me and this afternoon Nelson, Hemmed (our other gardener) and Justin helped me to plant the first “batch” of seeds (with a little help from my daughter and one of our dogs, Dibble – who you have yet to meet !).
The gardeners were quite amused at my scribblings on the coloured sticks. Seeing as they can’t read English (and some of them can’t read at all) I thought that the coloured markers would be easy for them to understand e.g. “Hemmed, the bags with the yellow sticks in them don’t need a lot of water, but the bags with the pink sticks do, okay ?” My instructions were met with amused nods all round and I bet they are going to get them all mixed up in no time, so I will have to keep a beady eye on things.
Anyway, today we planted 5 different types of seeds (with many more to follow over the next couple of days), which were -:
Hollyhock (“Chater’s Double Mixed” variety)
Bellis Perennis (Double Daisy)
Snapdragon (“Magic Carpet” variety)
Pansy (“Cape of Storms” variety)
Primula Malacoides (Mixed)
Our little ‘nursery’ is set up under the trees at the back of the garden, and I hope that all the seeds germinate and then we will be able to transplant the seedlings into flower beds in the main garden.
So watch this space, as I’ll be doing regular garden updates !
