Last Tuesday, was chatting with next door about the project, and mentioned that I might enlist the kids for assistance, to help with filling the tubes.. She has three – age from 12 downwards – and told me that they'd come round on Wednesday afternoon.
So, last Wednesday, bought a packet of dust masks .. and two packets of lollies, as wasn't sure whether pure altruism is fully developed in children under 12 - arrived home at about 5.30pm (ain't daylight saving grand?) to find that they'd already been 'round and filled enough tubes for the second box.
WhooHoo! Think I, checked to see that the soil in the tubes was sufficiently packed, then rushed ahead with enthusiasm. Found the two packets of seeds that were supposed to be planted on 22nd Nov. (Acacia rupicola – Rock Wattle).
Carefully sprinkled four or five seeds onto the top of each tube, covered each with a layer of gravel, gave them a good watering, sat down satisfied, opened a stubbie of VB ..THEN opened the book of instructions and carefully re-read the section on “planting the seeds”.
Acacia (All those not listed above.)
Shade needed in early stages.
Seed treatment before sowing; put the seed into a container and pour on water which has just boiled. Soak for 12-24 hours and sow all the seed. [emphasis added.]
OOOOOOPS. (oh all right.. am a bloke.) Pondered the problem for a while, then began tipping the gravel – and hopefully the seeds – into a flat bottomed bowl, painstakingly sorting through the gravel and picking out the seeds with tweezers. Arrrrgh!! the tedium!
Rang Trees for Life the following morning and explained the problem. They were very gentle and understanding, promised to post two more packets of seeds as there is a few days leeway with the timings.
[there was a further "filling and planting" effort Saturday afternoon, which will cover in next post]
5 comments:
Hi friend, thanks for visiting my blog. Wow, you seem to have a very interesting life there, I'm jealous.
May you have many happy walk abouts. Hugs.
Luv ya bbc, may many more monkeys read you, and jealousy is not a word in my lexicon. Cheers, d.
pity you could not have bribed the kids with lollies to do those other tedious bits too
Hang on a doggone sec. How the hell did acacias get soaked in boiling water before blokes came along to do it? The only place you'd find them is around hot springs. I bet ya they'd have been fine if you just let them be.
Ain't to hard to get something to sprout, as I discovered when I left my birth control in the nightstand.
Australia is a tough place to grow things, Anne. Quite a lot of plants cannot germinate until a bushfire comes along and cracks open the seed coating .. though sitting around in a rare puddle waiting for a bushfire to come and give it a boil seems a peculiar survival technique.
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