Success Story: Fergie’s Bells

A boy and his bells

The surprise packet of 2020 was my brother Fergus going from, in his words, “a plant killer” to a bona fide green thumb. As COVID lockdown struck in March, he decided he had enough time at home to plant a few seeds. Things went okay, but not great. He then had a little break, and replanted in Spring. This time he went all the way, ending up with huge incredible bunches of bright green Bells of Ireland, followed by a tall bunch of teddy bear sunflowers in quick succession. Woah!

He’s now having a go at growing dahlias from a bulb. We’re waiting with baited breath to see if he gets a stunning bunch of red dahlias and also which stripe T-shirt will he wear next?

Stripes and sunflowers

Here’s 3 things he did right:

#1 Competition - Ferg loves a competition and he saw Dom grow Bells of Ireland, so he vowed to grow them too. A friend of mine is also growing dahlias and Ferg checks in with her to make sure he’s on track (AKA winning).

#2 Try again and improve - the first time he planted seeds the response was underwhelming, somethings worked and some didn’t. But what Ferg did so well was not get discouraged and think he was a black thumb. He had another go at planting seeds and improved exponentially! Learning something new takes time and experimenting.

#3 Narrow down to one thing - Ferg narrowed down from planting tonnes of different seeds, to deciding he wanted a bunch of Bells of Ireland and a bunch of Sunflowers. Having that clear goal made it easy to stick with his daily waterings.

#4 Bonus tip: Planning ahead for holidays - My bro is nothing if not organised! He knew he’d be away interstate for 3 weeks over the holidays and unable to water his dahlias, so he organised for his in-laws to water them and they are taller and happier than ever!