Green(ish) fingers

In the seven years we've lived in this house we've not had much success with gardening. Our yard faces north and is very sheltered, so gets very little sun. Every last inch of it is full of weeds as well, so any attempt to grow real plants fails almost instantly.

One of the things we've always enjoyed, though, is the sycamore that grows in the garden next to ours.

Every year we watch the bare branches burst into life, and I marvel at how quickly the flowers bloom, leaves spread out and seeds appear.

While we don't always appreciate the amount of shade the tree provides (we get little enough sun in the garden as it is!), I do love the fact it screens the garden from our neighbours windows. Every year we say to each other that when the seeds are ready to fall, we'll collect some and try to grow our own. Unfortunately we always forget!

This last autumn it was even more important, because we kind of had a feeling we'd be moving house this year and I really wanted to take a piece of the garden with us. But once again, we failed to collect any seeds.

I was out in the garden this morning, hanging out laundry and enjoying the sunshine, when I noticed some odd seedlings growing in an old plant tub that's been sat under the sycamore for years. It's full of rain water, leaf litter and general garden detritus. So I was quite surprised to see eight little green seedlings poking through the brown gunk.

A quick Google told me what I wanted to know. They were sycamore seedlings! They must have fallen from the tree straight into the tub, and germinated in the last week or so. I immediately set about gathering plant pots and hunting through the shed for my half empty bags of compost.

I rescued eight seedlings from the horror bucket. Hopefully at least one or two will survive and grow, and we will be able to take a part of this house with us when we move next month.