At last we have had some rain to aid our fall planting.
Fall is the best time to spread your wildflower seeds, and these gentle rains we have been experiencing are perfect for wildflower seed planting. Keep Wimberley Beautiful recently supplied wildflower seeds to the preschool outdoor education classes at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School. Teacher Megan Brown spread the seeds with her students before they stomped them into the ground — the seeds need to make good soil contact in order to germinate.
Over the years, I have learned what the seedlings of different wildflowers look like. When I try to introduce a new wildflower (well, new to me), I construct a box in the sun or partial sun and put clean dirt, free of weed seeds, into the box. The boxes can be made out of various materials. I have used bricks, logs, scrap lumber, stones, anything that will hold the dirt in place. The plants currently in the box are cut close to the ground. For the dirt, I purchase clean garden soil to place on top of the current plants. The seeds go into the box on top of the clean soil and are pressed down. If it does not rain, it is necessary to gently water the seeds. When the first seeds germinate, you will learn the appearance of your wildflower seedlings.
Be certain to get your spring flowering bulbs into the ground this month. I have started forcing my paper-white narcissus bulbs, so I will have fragrant indoor flowers for the holiday season. At the moment, the bulbs are in a dark, room-temperature closet. The bulbs are resting in a tall vase with rocks and water beneath their roots. The bulb must not sit in the water, but the roots must be able to grow down into the rocks in water.
When the first buds emerge from the leaves, I will bring the plants out into a light window. Within a month of being in a window (with the water level maintained beneath the bulbs), we usually have flowers.
