TÄNAVALT / FROM THE STREET – Näpud mullaseks! / Fingers in the dirt!

PHOTO 1: So where should I go first? The aiand (garden centre, from the word aed = garden, also fence), where they sell suve/lilled (“summer flowers”, annuals, also ühe/aastased), lille/taimed (flowering plants), lille/amplid (hanging baskets of flowers), kasvu/muld (“growth”/gardening soil) and köögi/vilja/taimed (vegetable plants) kasvu/hoonesse (for the greenhouse).

Or should I turn right in the direction of the võõras/emad ("stepmothers", i.e. pansies, also aed/kannikesed, “garden violets”) and puu/kool (literally tree school, i.e. nursery), where there are roosi/istikud (rose seedlings), püsi/lilled (perennials, also püsikud because they last, püsivad), ilu/puud and ilu/põõsad (“beauty” / decorative trees and bushes), heki/taimed (hedge plants), vilja/puud (fruit trees) and marja/põõsad (berry bushes). And in teenie-tiny print – yes, this is a silma/kontroll (eye exam) – köögi/vilja/taimed (vegetable plants) ava/maale (for your garden, plot of land).
Estonians say they can’t wait to dig their fingers in the earth and get them covered in soil: „näpud mullaseks”.