Читать книгу In Bloom - Clare Nolan - Страница 32

Generally, a plant is ready to go out in the garden when it has about three or four sets of “true” leaves – these differ in shape to the first pair of leaves the seed produces when it emerges. However, I tend to wait until plants are a little bit bigger than this, because tiny seedlings in my garden can’t survive the trampling, ferocious nose-nudging and digging-up sessions from my dog, as well as attacks from a thriving local slug and snail population.

HARDENING OFF INDOOR SEEDLINGS

After the mollycoddling you’ve given your seedlings indoors, you need to prepare them by hardening them off to lessen the shock of the move to outdoors. Over the course of 2–3 weeks, begin increasing their exposure to outside, to toughen them up. My “springtime shuffle” consists of moving seedlings from the heated bench to the cold greenhouse, then the cold frame before planting them in their final positions outdoors. You can achieve the same hardening-off process by putting seedlings somewhere sheltered by a wall or hedge, covered with a couple of layers of horticultural fleece, during the daytime for the first week of exposure and bringing them in at night. For the second week, take off one of the layers of fleece during the day, leaving two on at night. Then in the third week, remove the fleece during the day altogether, taking it off at night toward the end of the week before planting out the following week. It’s all a little bit of a palaver, but without it the plants go into shock and won’t do very well at all.

A WORD ON REDUCING PLASTIC

We’re all trying to reduce our use of plastic in everyday life, and this year I’ve been looking at ways to do this in the garden. I’m in the process of using up all the plastic I have and have stopped buying new. Plastic labels are now replaced with wooden popsicle sticks bought in bulk online. I’ve been trying out a few new propagating techniques in an attempt to remove the need for plastic pots entirely, and I’m thrilled with the results. Going forwards, I’ll be moving over 100 percent to soil blocking – where the soil serves as both the growing medium and the container for the seed – from sowing stage right through to planting. I’ve been using biodegradable bags bought online (which look a bit like teabag material) to pot and grow all the larger seedlings and plants and it’s worked brilliantly (see Resources, page 266).

Larkspur seedlings beginning their hardening off process.

Homemade comfrey feed being applied to ‘Attar of Roses’ scented geranium – it should be the color of weak tea.

Sweet peas climbing up a hazel wigwam and pea sticks.

‘Madame Butterfly’ snapdragons supported with pea netting.