Revision time

The skills test for the Practical Horticulture module is tomorrow, so I used the need to practice as an excuse to get outside.

I mixed a seed sowing compost from a Lidl general purpose compost and horticultural sand for some green manure seed. I sowed them by the book, except for sieving the compost for the lack of a soil sieve. The green manure seeds sown in the back part of the garden back in October mostly went for the birds again, so if the weather holds I'll be able to plant on some seedlings instead.

They might even germinate!

The wonderfully deep magenta christmas hyacinths from Ikea had gone over rather, but I want to try to get them bloom outside come spring next year.

*wilt*

 Thusly, as a second practice, I made a bulb planting compost mix from:

1/6 horticultural sand

1/6 vermiculite

4/6 compost

A pinch of seaweed meal

Vermiculite & sand

A very free-draining mixture, this.

I wanted to separate the bulbs, but, well...

Pot pound, much?

For the compost part of the mixture I went for half Lidl general purpose, half B&Q house plant compost. The latter is stored indoors and I didn't want to give the roots too much of a temperature shock (this is VERY IMPORTANT. anything unable to regulate its own temperature can die from a fast change in temperature even when it would survive both temperatures, given a chance to acclimatise.).

Potted with some pebbles at the bottom of the pot for drainage, slightly deeper than originally. I've no idea if that's the right thing to do, but they'll be planted even deeper when they go out. Once the weather's reliably a bit warmer I'll harden them off via the greenhouse and plant them in a corner somewhere.

Sorting through my stash of seed packets probably wasn't strictly necessary for revision. Also, there are now all of three Roosters chitting on kitchen window sill for my "learn to grow potatoes in case of an apocalypse" project. Heh.