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“Though I do not believe
that a plant will spring up What is it that is so alluring about starting plants from seed? Buying starter plants in spring is much easier after al!. Perhaps it's that it all starts here - in those shiny little specks in the palm of your hand – the promise that spring WILL come and flowers WILL bloom again. In
the heart of winter, spring seems so far
away. But on a sunny late winter day while
sorting through seed catalogues and old seed packs, worries
of the moment fade quickly to thoughts of new plants to fill
gaps in the perennial bed ... cheerful flowers
for the wedding bouquet in July ... tomatoes for an
August family picnic salad ... herbs for drying
to flavour the family's favourite winter
stew.
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. . . a funny piece that we'll all recognize ourselves in, by Karl Capek, as excerpted in SEEDS by Peter Loewer, on the "best" potting soil mix for seed starting. Evelyn ... some people say that charcoal
should be added, and others deny it; some recommend a
dash of yellow sand because it is supposed to contain iron,
while others warn you against it for the very fact that it
does contain iron. Others again, recommend clean river
sand, others peat alone, and still others sawdust. In
short, the preparation of the soil for seeds is a great
mystery and a magic ritual. To it should be added
marble dust (but where to get it?), three-year-old cow dung
(here it is not clear whether it should be the dung of a
three-year-old cow or a three year old heap), a handful from
a fresh molehill, clay pounded to dust from old pigskin
boots, sand from the Elbe (but not from the Vltabva), three
year old hotbed soil, and perhaps besides the humus from the
golden fern and a handful from the grave of a hanged virgin.
All that should be well mixed (gardening books do not say
whether at the new moon, or full, or on midsummer
night); and when you put this mysterious soil into
flower pots (soaked in water, which for three years have
been standing in the sun, and on whose bottoms you put
pieces of boiled crockery, and a piece of charcoal, against
the use of which other authorities, of course, express their
opinions) – when you have done all that, and so obeyed
hundreds of prescriptions, principally contradicting each
other, you may be |
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