The Great Carrot Mystery (Part Two)
Wow. I have just got back to the flat after just over a week away and I cannot believe the difference on the balcony. Gone are the weak, struggling seedlings I remember. In their place are brash, proud plants growing on their very own. This draws me to three conclusions; 1) Perhaps my girlfriend is in fact much better at gardening than I am. 2) Sometimes a little hard love is good. Four days on their own has done little harm (except a slight yellowing on the edge of the squash leaves). 3) I really have been unlucky with the weather. Rain in Arran I can accept, but to be on the beach in Italy wrapped up against the biting wind and lashing rain was a bit rich. But at least it was good for the plants!
However, my return hasn't brought all good news... You may recall I reported a mysterious flattening of my carrots some weeks back. Well, that patch has just completely given up the ghost and died outright. At the time I thought a pigeon was sitting on them, but I haven't heard of a problem like this before. I pulled a few of the dead plants up and the roots looked pretty healthy - they seem to have been killed from the top. The only thing I have noticed is quite a few ants scurrying around. So, if anyone has any thoughts on this new mystery, I'm all ears! So much for being the expert...
And on that point, I have to admit that this 'expert' did exactly the same thing with his lettuce as Sarah. I find it so hard to pull up healthy looking plants, so my lettuce box is also rammed
to the brim. I hoped that I would thin them out by eating leaves, but of course they grow back when you do that... so i guess I am stuck with 'Take That' lettuces as well (perhaps some music therapy would help them along? Patience? Shine?). My answer is just to embrace it - and make a feature of their smallness. We could claim that they are tastier that way. Either way, have no fear, and eat away. I've been nibbling on my lettuce for weeks without any obvious side-effects.
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Finally, a recommendation. ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Breathing Places is cleaning up the country with their Dirty Weekends on the 6-7 June. So if you have been bitten by the gardening bug, this is a great chance to take it a step further and get mucky for nature. I'll be up in Doncaster helping out, so if you are around do come along and say hi - there will be loads going on. So no excuses!
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