Garden Bears' World - Part Two

After we had finished planting the broad beans, Polar brought another piece of scrap plastic into the kitchen, and a tray of plants that looked like thick grass and smelled of garlic.  

'These are called Babbington Leeks,' Polar explained.  'They will get much bigger than this.  I haven't grown them before, but they are a perennial vegetable, which means they should regrow every year, if we can get them growing properly this year.  My boss at work gave them to me, as little bulbs, and now they need moving into bigger pots, before we plant them outdoors later in the spring.'

We watched Polar pot on the Babbington Leeks and saw that the plastic tray - which had been used to hold big yogurt pots in the supermarket - was just the right size for the leek pots to stand in.  We wanted to help, but Polar said we would get our paws dirty.

'I have another job for you three,' she said.  'I'm going to put some fresh compost in the tray the leeks were in, then you can push an onion set into each module.  It's too wet to plant them outdoors at the moment, so we can give them a start in the greenhouse.'

This was a great job for bears, as we didn't need to get compost on our paws.  We took it in turns to push some of the sets into the modules, making sure that we put them in the right way up - with the pointy end poking out of the compost.

Then Polar topped the tray up with more compost, and found a mushroom box for the few onion sets that were left over.

'Are we going to plant some seeds now?' asked Hanley Bear, picking up a packet of chilli seeds he had seen.

'Yes, we are,' Polar replied.  'But be careful with those seeds, Hanley.  Don't put your paws near your eyes after you've handled them, until I've wiped them with a clean, damp flannel.'

There were two packs of different types of chilli.  Hanley carefully counted out half of the seeds in each packet and spaced them out on the compost in two separate trays, then Polar wiped his paws.  'We can save the rest of the seeds for next year,' she said.  'The packet says they should be good until 2023!'

'These should have been used by 2015!' I said, showing Polar a packet of sweet pepper seeds.  'That makes them older than me!'

There were some new ones as well, so Polar suggested we sowed a mixture of the two, putting the very old seeds in between the newer ones.

'If they all grow, we will have lots of spare plants, but we can take them to work or to the allotment, and sell them to raise money for your Paddington Fund to do Good Things,' Polar said.

'I would love to grow these little tomatoes!' said Endon.  'Can we grow some of those for the Paddington Fund too?'

'Of course we can, Endon,' said Polar.  'They are very small seeds, so don't lose them in your furry paws, and don't use them all.  We can save some of these for next year as well.'

We were very proud of our work but, when Polar carried the trays away to a warm window sill, we saw there was compost all over the kitchen worktop.  I thought we ought to help clean up.

'Don't you worry about that, little bears,' said Polar.  'You've all worked very hard today.  Settle down in your basket and I'll bring you in stroopwafels and tea, after I've cleaned the kitchen.'

Polar has put the broad beans, onions and leeks in the greenhouse, where we can see them from the living room window, and the peppers, chillis and tomatoes are on the living room window sill, so we will keep a close check on them, make sure they get watered if the compost starts to dry out.  

We can't wait to see if they will grow, especially my very old pepper seeds!  Hanley says that if all the chillis grow, he will take some to Polar's friend who makes and sells Indian food at Stoke Market and see if he can swap them for a couple of his favourite veggie samosas, so hopefully we will have a small bears' feast this summer!