Titanarum

The propagator is on the sill. Empty toilet rolls have been cut in half and filled with compost and seeds (sweet corn). Other seeds are ready to take their place once germination has been established and the seedlings have been transferred to K’s greenhouse. I’m planting coffee seeds next, I expect. The ones I got on Ebay before xmas. I’ve also managed to squeeze into the propagator two pots of hypodronically grown herbs. One is mint the other parsley. Both have been shorn to give flavour to a couscous dish I made the other day. I am hoping they will yield another crop for another dish. I’ve tried both these herbs before and found mint to be no problem whereas the parsley, being so tightly packed, can disappoint unless I thin them dramatically. And I didn’t bother doing that on the day I cut them down. Two traumas won’t make a recovery, I fear. I may just put it in the compost bag. Talking of which. I have to take it down to the compost bin very soon. I.e. today. It is beginning to pong a little. But that, I guess, is all part and parcel of caring for the environment.

Sometimes, but not often, it is hard to decide what is best. Take parsley. Flat leaved is the variety preferred by the southern Europeans whereas the Brits and the northern European populations prefer it curly leaved. They both taste wonderfully sweet but in terms of perfume I find the curly variety unsurpassed. But why put yourself in the awkward position of having to choose? Just grow both. How? Well follow the instructions on the packet. That’s what I do. Just bear in mind that they take forever to sprout. Unless I put a stick or stone where I’ve sown it I tend to forget and suddenly have a field of parsley competing with runner beans or whatever. But should that happen to you be comforted that the young parsley plants do survive being transplanted if done with tenderness. Because gardening isn’t just a mechanical process. Feelings can make all the difference to a crop. Say you go to your plot or garden feeling moody and take out all your bad feelings on a defenceless sapling by tramping on it. That means it won’t crop. But say, you decide to take out your bad feelings on the weeds. That means the cultivars have a much better chance of thriving. Feelings are very important in gardening but they must be controlled.