Growing Bird Seed and Broccoli

When I was a child I used to love growing our budgie's seed. I would nestle the seeds down on a saucer of cotton wool on the window sill and nurture them to life. My little soul would derive great joy in watching all the different sorts of seed rapidly unfold, each in their own unique way. Perhaps it was the first stages of my inner gardener being awoken.

This week we cut a milk carton in half and filled it with a layer of cotton wool, scattered some birdseed over the top, and gave it all a light water -until all the cotton wool was just wet.  The seeds were placed near the fireplace so they had plenty of warmth. Within 3 days seeds were emerging - much to the Bowerbird's delight.  We shifted the seeds to the window sill, so they would get more light, and they have grown and grown. This has been a great vessel for the little Bowerbird to play with, as there was nothing to spill or break.  There were no precious seeds in the mix so everyone was free to poke and play with them. Once the discovery was made that the sunflower shoots were edible, and in fact very tasty, there was a mass frenzy to pluck and chew. I explained monocotyledons and dicotyledons witthe middle Bowerbird and discussed which seeds were which. Everything was sampled, even the roots. I think we might need to grow some micro greens next.  In the mean time this has become a birdseed jungle for some little plastic animals.

Last weekend, when I was ill, I managed to cajole the big Bowerbird to plant some Romanesco broccoli for me, I hate not being able to garden. I've got a great variety of brassicas in this winter, we are already eating cauliflowers and traditional broccolli and soon to arrive will be purple sprouting broccolli, calabrese broccolli and Cavalo Nero Kale. I think she will be very chuffed when she sees her efforts all grown up, Romanesco broccoli is so cool. They remind me of those computer generated fractal images that were so popular in the 90s. The brassicas have all been given a good dose of horse poo which should help them power along.

These little Eastern Spinebills are pipping constantly outside at the moment. This Grevillea is their favourite plant to visit through winter although they are also taken with the nectar from Correas and Pineapple Sage.  Whilst they are always abundant, they are small and fast and terribly hard to photograph.  It is fun trying though, I'd love to get  a picture of the Scarlet Robins that are catching insects in our mulch, they're very flighty and I find small children are especially noisy when you're trying to take photos.



Playing along with Let the Children Play