March 18, 2008...10:55 am
A lazy Saturday afternoon
After a night of carousing in the European Capital of Culture that stretched into the early hours of the following morning, I returned to a rainy Wales, too unpleasant to be outdoors but ideal for a quick wander around a garden centre. It had to be a quick one as well; any longer and we could have spent the equivalent of a small principality’s GDP as the place was stocked full of enticing young plants heralding the start of spring. However we showed relative restraint, just buying Easter presents and a couple of blueberry and gooseberry bushes.
Back home, my gardening activity was restricted to perusing the horticulture columns in The Independent. Cleve West warned against sowing seeds too early, even indoors. Although he didn’t provide an explanation in the article - a shame as I’m sure most novice gardeners would be interested in the whys and wherefores - basically, you may be providing a more conducive environment for germination by controlling temperature and moisture, but chances are you’re reliant on natural daylight unless you have invested in expensive lighting. The results are lanky, etiolated seedlings as the quality and quantity of light is insufficient. I showed this to this the other half, who likes to treat our dining room/conservatory as an upmarket greenhouse. As impressed as he was by my scientific explanation (?) I don’t think it will stop him from filling every available surface with propagators in the next few weeks. Cleve also mentioned ordering his lunar calendar. Sowing seeds in accordance with the phases of the moon is something I definitely want to investigate further.
Meanwhile, in the Bi-orb, Choccy is fighting another bout of White Spot. We did some investigation into the disease and one of the fish, probably Goldie, must have been infected before it left the pet shop so we don’t think we could have prevented it despite all the precautions we took. Who’d have thought owning goldfish could be so traumatic?
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