Sprouting
on Thea's Blog (Uganda), 11/Aug/2009 12:03, 34 days ago
They say if you plant a walking stick in the ground in Uganda, within a few days it will be sprouting green shoots. The speed at which things grow here is verging on the alarming (isn’t there some horror film where rampant plants take over the world?). I left some peas in a plastic bag overnight in our somewhat un-cold fridge, and a day later they were covered in little yellow shoots. If I’d sat there long enough I probably would have seen them sprout. Esther put an unpromising, browning lemongrass plant in the ground a fortnight ago and it’s now taller than me. The herbs I’ve planted in chopped up water bottles are shooting in all directions. However the fact that the little seedlings are all identical even though they are meant to be parsley, coriander and mint makes me think that perhaps a faster-growing weed has cuckooed them out. Presumably extreme fertility and highly favourable growing conditions heightens Darwinian competition. I may need to come up with a way of giving my seeds a fighting chance. I’ve planted what I think might be a red hibiscus Ibought for 30p from a sleepy boy in an old paint tin and I’m trying to find a home for a miniature rose from the same roadside stall.In contrast to my horticultural experiences, the search for funds to rescue RFPJ is so far proving pretty unfertile. It’s taking rather longer than it should to get applications together (only one submitted so far), perhaps because, without realising it, I’ve already succumbed to the Ugandan pace of doing things.