Garden Centre

Monday, October 8, 2007

Last tree to hug …

For a while at least. And this one is more of a mild tickle than a hug, because it’s tiny, if you hugged it, it would probably snap!

In July 2006 I went to Ben and Jerry’s Sundae in the Park, to interview Jerry Greenfield (yup, lucky old me! He’s a lovely guy, I got lots of free ice-cream and the whole day was great fun) and was given a tree seed in one of those glazed paper ice-cream tubs Ben and Jerry’s use, to grow. It also came with a compressed block of compost/planting medium.

So when I got home I immediately threw away the silly paper tub and the useless compost which claimed it would become a perfect planting medium when soaked in water. Out of curiosity I did soak it, and eighteen hours later, half of it was a powdery gunk floating in water and the other half was still a solid block. I planted my seed in plastic pot, in a mixture of multipurpose compost and John Innes number two and it went off a belter.

It’s had a couple of misadventures – a large slug tried a nibble in its first few weeks of life and just recently it got bowled several yards down the garden by a Cairn Terrier who was chasing a squirrel and wasn’t in total control of his paws, but it seems to be coping.

As you can see, for a tree that’s just over a year old, it’s not doing too badly – but what is it? The Ben and Jerry’s paper pot didn’t say, and one conifer looks much like another to me, especially at the seedling stage, so if you have any idea what it is I’m growing, I’d be grateful for your input.

Labels: ben and jerrys, garden trees, growing plants from seed, tree planting

The All Seasons Gardener at 3:59 AM

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