vrijdag 2 augustus 2013

2nd August - "Flat flowers"

In the early 1980s I used to live in a council flat in the Hightown area of Salford. It was 9 floors up with a spectacular view across to the TV transmitter on Winter Hill which meant excellent TV reception. Although it had no outside balcony, it had an enormous living-room window, which was so wide that it was difficult to get curtains to fit. I used to grow all sorts of things in front of this window including a large selection of pot plants and in summer, garden annuals. These are schizanthus, known as the Poor Man's Orchid, cornflower and nigella or love-in-a-mist. While living in this flat I also grew the only carrots I have ever been successful with. They were a small round variety called "Kundulus". They were much too high for the carrot fly to attack. It flies very near to the ground, all the better to lay its eggs in one's carrots. Every other time I have tried to grow carrots in open ground they have either been riddled with carrot fly grubs or vanished without a trace at the seedling stage.

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