So – we started this year with a new house and our own garden. Finally – a space of our own, no-one to answer to, no-one to blame … just ours. Which is why we’re writing this blog … so we can remember what we did and when.
And our year got off to an early start – in early January we’d already earmarked a small patch of the garden for a veg patch. The division had been made – Gem would look after the flowers, I’d look after the veg … unless looking after the veg looked like more fun in which case Gem would take over that as well. Gem bought her sweet pea seeds – I bought my tomato seeds … and suddenly our living room became a seed nursery.
What nobody tells you about tomato seeds is that they all grow. Every single devil spawn seed of them … one single packet contains about a million seeds, which when liberally sprinkled over a little compost become about a million little shoots. The first one is exciting … you have created new life and will feed your family throughout the year. By the time the millionth one comes up you’re phoning the number on the back of the seed packet and asking who on earth would want 1,000,000 tomato plants ?
Then comes the pricking out or, being honest, deciding who lives and dies. Each little shoot is investigated for imperfections – too short, too thin, small leaf, only one leaf – only the most perfect aryan specimens make it. It may have been a lovely warm march day, but filtering 1,000,000 tomato plants down to 36 prime plantlings made me wonder about my moral compass.
The thing is - we only have space for about 9 plants at the maximum. So – twelve have been given away to my mum (who only asked for six but was gracious enough not to complain when given a trayfull). Four have been given to Gem’s family. The neighbours have all been offered but still nobody wants them. They realise that the tomato’s mission is to spread and it is us that is being used to achieve this … waiting for birds to eat the seeds and poop them out somewhere else wasn’t effective enough – multiplication through homebase, much better.
It’s May now – time for planting our is soon upon us. If you see 11 tomato plants abandoned at Paddington Station you’ll know the choice has been made.
