It is hard not to get over-excited at this time of year. Sensible people are demanding restraint. The daft ones are saying “go for it, life is short”, although they know really that a later sowing will catch up. I will let you guess which category I fall into. It is not big and it is not clever, but I always sow seed too early and too liberally. I really should not be allowed to influence people.
Last week I gave a talk to a women’s group. The subject was Seed, Glorious Seed and was followed by a practical sowing and pricking out session. I prepared a powerpoint presentation (say that quickly after a couple of babychams), had previously sown cosmos and calendula for demonstration purposes, sorted seeds of differing shapes and sizes for comparison, sorted seed for sowing on the night, arranged yoghurt pots to be saved with irrigation holes drilled, made plant labels from milk cartons, bought peat free compost, packed a couple of new Sharpies and saddled my horse. My aim was to demonstrate the great joy to be had from growing plants from seed and hopefully meet some nice people in the process.
It could have started better. Nobody could get the projector to work, and there were some clever maids there, so everyone had to squint at my computer to see the slide show. A kind and considerate bunch, they pretended they could see what was on the screen, nodding politely but with a general look of bewilderment on their faces. Perhaps that was just the effect of my explanations. Then the practical session began. I have just one word. Carnage. Perhaps another too. Anarchy. In a peaceful kind of way. Nice anarchy. My carefully sorted packets were thrown to the wind, popular seed was wrestled over, pots of compost dropped on the floor, questions bombarded me from all angles, “put a label in it” was on repeat. Everyone joined in. It was fun. I am pretty certain it was fun.
Today, the lovely ring leader of this glorious affray messaged me with a photo of a germinating dahlia seed. By golly, I think my cunning plan worked! There is no going back now. Oh yes, and they were very nice people.
Off The Edge Gardening 
I guess you learnt your sowing techniques at dance school: “Sow, sow, quick quick, sow”. And I quess they learned more from you than you realised! I mean, you announced that seeds were free and the resultant stampede and grabbing fights were pure Heavens. When it comes to speedy germination, I’d put it down to some Heavenly influence, of which I have some experience. What matters is that they enjoyed the event (eye strain and headaches aside) and you emerged relatively intact at the end.
I hope you mentioned the possibility of a follow-up talk on how to keep their babies alive.
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Very funny and very true. 🙂
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Ah, the joys of technology. I’m imagining Beryl Cook style lady gardeners 🙂
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Ha! Well they were just as jolly as Beryl Cook’s lovely ladies, but not quite the same shape. 🙂
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You have influenced a whole new group of gardeners, and that is a good thing. 🙂
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I hope so, a little anyway. 😊
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Love it! Those talks can be, uh, challenging…well done! I gave a talk (I am daft) and suggested people limit the number of foliage colors in the tropical gardens…bad, daft me.
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The words do their own thing sometimes 😁
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At least I did not say what I really think!
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😂
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how exciting and specially to get the photo of the germinated seeds – you’ve clearly had the desired effect
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I was relieved 😁
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This post made me smile. I’m generally one of the sensible ones and don’t start sowing until after the clocks change. xx
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Not long to go then! X
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Sounds like my kind of talk!
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