10.14.2008

Apocalyptic Gardening with Bob; Molehill Dirt, Etc.

A few days ago a new friend of mine, Sir Bob, posted the following on his blog:
"Potted up all the plants I wanted to save from Pumpend. Just used some molehill soil from the field and mixed in some old growbag and added a bit of bonemeal. I won't be asking them to do anything fancy over the winter so that will keep them alive." 
 
As a curious new gardener this sounded like a fascinating process, or ritual.  I didn't know.  So, Sir Bob explained it for me.
 

"SATURDAY, 11 OCTOBER 2008

Mole Hill Soil

Yesterday Red Clover asked me about mole hill soil with regard to potting up some Geraniums for over wintering. Its something I do sometimes if its something thats not too important that I want to grow or keep. There is a mole out on the green that keeps pushing up the soil which is finely graded and seems to free from weed so why not make use of it. I know you shouldn't really use ordinary soil for potting, I don't remember why but in this instance I decided to throw away the rule book. I think ordinary soil tends to compact in to the pots so to try and keep it open I added some filling from the old growbag the Melon plant was in, I also added a hand full of bonemeal as a slow release fertilizer. So what I used was fresh molehill soil mixed roughly half and half with growbag compost and mixed in with this a small handful of bonemeal."

There now!  If you would like some first class pictures of moles, or of a grow bag, please visit The Diary Of An English Gardener.
One of these days I am going to post what Sir Bob has told me about Dahlia tubers...I just don't plan on telling him that in my ignorance I threw mine away a good month ago.  Que Vergonia! 

2 comments:

Rob said...

I heard that - ha ha! Its probably easier to throw them away and buy new in the sping if you only want one or two. I'm pretty lucky in that I can get away with leaving them in the ground all winter. I just dig up a sample of each variety just as an insurance.

Red Clover said...

That is really cool that you do that. I want a whole post on marking Dahlias! Alright!!!!