If you had asked me the above question a year ago, I'd have told you that I am very much in the "clueless gardener" camp. I wouldn't have even described myself as a gardener - I had one potted plant in my bedroom that lasted days before I admitted defeat! My interest and fascination was always captured much more by animal rather than plant life. Even now, as I write this piece, I have to admit that I am much closer to the category of clueless gardener than learned horticulturalist . . .
I am learning as I go, I am fairly certain I am making mistakes, and I have no idea whether or not my efforts will yield the hoped for results.
But I am still going and, a few months since being planted, so is my little garden!
Wildflowers
My interest in the natural world means that I am quite aware of the importance of wildflowers and the sad statistics around how much wildflower space we have lost in the United Kingdom. It is for that reason that I developed an interest in growing a selection where I could.
I have sown wildflowers before, at a property where I lived a few years ago. There, I sowed the seeds in a prepared bed and, apart from occasionally watering them, left the seeds to do their own thing. And they grew successfully!
This time, I had a packet of various wildflower seeds but, because of my living situation, I didn't have a bed in which to plant them, so I decided to try and raise them in a pot.
I didn't consider such things as filling the bottom of my container with a drainage layer (pebbles, or crocks, for example), and simply filled the thing with all-purpose compost. The pot has a hole though, so it's fine, right? The all-purpose compost is great for novice gardeners like me because it means I don't have to think too much about which compost to use for which area of the garden - I can use it for them all!
And that's why it's called ALL-purpose compost (and this is probably the point at which more seasoned gardeners than I raise an eyebrow, if not both, and wonder how bad the rest of this piece is going to get).
Still, the plants that are now growing in the pot are all green and vibrant. I haven't seen any bloom but I did sow the seeds quite late and, from the reading I have done, I understand that I may now not see any flowers until next year.
But, if there are any learned gardeners reading this piece, what do you think? Do you have any tips? I am very much learning as I go in my gardening endeavours and would appreciate the input!
Strawberry plants
My interest was next drawn to the idea of cultivating a strawberry plant.
Whereas my interest in growing wildflowers was very much driven by my love for wildlife and doing my bit for pollinators, my desire to grow strawberries came from an idea to grow some of my own food. A tiny tentative step in the direction of self-sustenance.
Unlike the wildflowers, I had no experience in growing my own food to draw upon. But I didn't let that deter me. I did a little research online and, when I had all the information I thought I needed, I set off into town to find a small potted strawberry plant and a larger pot into which I was going to replant the thing.
It was only when I was standing in front of a number of plants outside my local Sainsbury's supermarket that I realised I didn't really know what to look for as I made my selection. Or indeed, whether or not I needed to look out for any warning signs of ill-health at all. As it was, I just picked up the plant that looked greenest and healthiest to my eye.
A few months down the line, and this plant has grown, I have a few fruits that aren't quite ripe yet, and a second plant that I propagated from a runner off the parent plant. I am learning as I go and, as we head towards the colder and darker months ahead, I am beginning to consider how I will need to care for the plants through winter. And that will mean more learning, and hoping that I get it right.
But, like I say, so far, they seem healthy. Some parts of the parent plant I've cut back because they didn't look as healthy as the rest. And it now seems happy, green, and healthy. Immediately after I snipped the second plant from the runner of the parent plant, having potted it in a pot of its very own, it began to look a little wilted and sorry for itself. However, I put a few small pebbles around the base of the plant to keep the leaves from sitting in the dirt, I snipped off a limp runner that had begun to grow from it, and I gave it a little water to drink. Since then it has perked up and looks fine.
Since the parent plant produced fruit, albeit not ripe fruit yet, I have put a net over the plant to deter any birds that might try to eat the fruits once they begin to ripen. And, once a week, I have been feeding the plant with tomato food. I am keeping an eye on these plants with great anticipation and excitement. I watch all my plants grow with interest. But watching the flowers of my strawberry plant turn in to fruit is particularly captivating.
Poppies and oxe-eye daisies
Very late in the summer, only weeks ago really, I bought a medium-sized trough shaped container in which to plant some more wildflowers. Rather than a packet of various seeds this time I opted for two favourites of mine.
After drilling drainage holes in the bottom of the container, filling it up with all-purpose compost, and sowing the seeds in neat-ish rows, I gave the soil a little watering and left them in the sunshine to do what they needed to do.
The next day, I went to walk rescue dogs at a local rescue and when I got home I went to check on my plants, and do you know what I found?
The soil in the trough-shaped container had been quite noticeably disturbed!
I was quite upset.
I imagine that something or other, doing what was quite natural to it, came along and discovered there were some tasty seeds to be had. I can't feel bad towards anything for that - if I was just trying to survive, I would probably take some tasty seeds too.
However, I did want to see the flowers grow, for the benefit of the pollinators as well as for my own sense of satisfaction. So I gently flattened out the soil and placed the netting I had purchased for the strawberry plants over the top of the container.
Since then, plants have started to appear, though not quite as neatly spaced as I had sown them. But they are there and they look green and happy to me.
I won't see any flowers until next spring, but I think that they should be worth the wait.
Seeds for next year . . .
So far, I have two seed packets intended for sowing next year. The first is a packet of evening primrose seeds. I want to sow these seeds because they are a flower that are well known for being fragrant towards the end of the day and into the evening. This is good for moths and I wouldn't want to forget the night time pollinators!
(Actually, I wrote a piece on gardening for moths here)
The second packet of seed is a mixed packet of chili pepper seeds. My efforts with the strawberry plants have emboldened me in my ideas of growing food for myself and I am going to be branching out into these hot and spicy peppers!
So, what makes a learned horticulturalist? Well, I am hoping that time and experience will move me closer towards that camp than I am at the moment. My efforts are amateur and I am learning all the time. But it brings me closer to nature, and I am discovering a greater joy and appreciation for plant life that had always been very much secondary to that which I had for animals.
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this piece, you can buy me a coffee on ko-fi - it keeps me going in the garden as well as at the keyboard! All support is gratefully received and very much appreciated!
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