A Prickly Start to the Gardening Season
Hello my dear friends of neat adventures! It's me again, little Viki, the bravest and most curious hedgehog explorer in the world. I'm telling you, today is a very special day! While the winter wind is still whistling around the houses outside, my humans have decided that we won't wait for spring any longer. If spring won't come to us, we'll just bring it into our living room!
Today is January 27, 2026, and I was just sitting cozily in my favorite spot when Mom and Dad suddenly came around the corner with a whole load of mysterious packages and bags. My little nose immediately started twitching. Does that smell like adventure? Or maybe new cuddly blankets? No, it was much better: we've become gardeners! On the packets were beautiful pictures of bright red tomatoes, crunchy peppers, fiery chilies, and – hold your breath – sugar-sweet strawberries. Seeing the strawberries, I would have loved to pack my bags and climb right into the packet.
Hedgehog Logic vs. Human Chaos
I have to tell you something: sometimes humans are really complicated. I watched the whole thing for a while and had my own thoughts about it. If I were the head of the gardening department, I would have solved the matter quite pragmatically. I would have simply torn open the packets with my little paws, scattered the contents with a flourish across the living room carpet, maybe shoveled a bit of potting soil from the large pot in the hallway over it and – bam – the hedgehog jungle would be finished! That would have been quick, fun, and we would have had a great new play landscape.
But no, Mom and Dad have to turn it into a proper science again. They decided on a method that I eyed very skeptically. They unpacked these strange little things they call coconut fiber pellets. To me, they looked like dried-up cookies at first, but I preferred not to try them. And then the miracle happened: as soon as they poured water over them, these brown discs started to grow and swell up! It was almost as exciting as an expedition into the deep forest. They then very carefully placed the tiny seeds into these wet coconut towers. Of course, I stood right next to them and checked everything with my wet nose. After all, every seed needs a proper starting place!
The Mystery of Dad's Strawberry Plate
But then came the part where I really thought Dad had lost his mind. He took a completely normal dinner plate. I thought: Great, finally a fine dinner for a hard-working hedgehog lady! But far from it. Instead of food, he wet a kitchen towel and laid it on the plate. Then he scattered the strawberry seeds on top of it. As if that wasn't strange enough, he then wrapped the whole contraption in plastic wrap.
I sat in front of it and wobbled my head. Now it looks like a little strawberry sauna or a wellness tent for tiny grains. I'm really skeptical if this works. If I had to lie under plastic wrap on a wet towel, I certainly wouldn't produce strawberries, but rather a bad mood! But Dad was very confident. He promised me faithfully that he has always done it this way and it has worked every year so far. Well, alright, I'll trust him. After all, he always has a plan when we go on trips, so he probably knows how to persuade seeds to wake up.
The Great Watch Begins
Since these breeding boxes and the mysterious plate have been sitting on the windowsill, I've been on continuous duty. I have appointed myself the official plantation guardian. Several times a day, I scurry to the boxes and check if a tiny green tip is showing itself yet. So far, everything is still very quiet, but I am ready! I'm already imagining myself roaming through a real jungle of tomato plants soon. For a little hedgehog like me, they are huge! It will be like a jungle safari, just without the dangerous tigers, but with the prospect of lots of delicious strawberries.
In any case, I will stand guard every day now. Once the chilies start growing, I have to be extra careful – Dad says they are "fiery." Maybe I can use them as little heaters when it starts snowing outside again? I'll definitely keep you posted and report immediately when the first green blinks out of the soil. It may not be a trip to a far-off land, but watching a whole garden grow from such tiny dots is actually the biggest adventure you can experience in a living room.
I have to go now and check the moisture of the coconut towers. One wouldn't want to leave anything to chance!
What do you think, should I maybe sing a little something to the seeds so they grow faster, or would my hedgehog voice rather scare the little strawberries away?