GO FLY A KITE
It is early February, five thirty in the morning, still dark save for the street lamps and the odd Christmas lights still on around the village. The thermometer is reading a shocking minus twenty-six Celsius. I am sat at the dining room table, with a cup of tea by my side, thermal socks, fuzzy slippers and an old bath robe for protection from the cold drafts in this old house of ours. On a morning such as this, it is difficult to remember the warmth of a spring day or the sweltering heat of a summer’s afternoon. With the gardens hidden under drifts of snow, the only hint of what lies there are the tallest of stems, picked clean of their seeds by the ever hungry birds. Rabbits have tended to the task of cutting back the roses for me. The greenhouse sits silent, empty and cold. At this moment, my mind cannot grasp the wonders of the garden that await the spring. It seems as though winter has always been with us and always will be with us. I believe some therapy is needed. Seed therapy! What better way to ward off winter and all its bone chilling gloom, than to plant some seeds in anticipation of the glorious seasons ahead?
Because my greenhouse is unheated, the seeds must be started indoors. In the dining room to be exact, on an old, three-tiered audio/visual stand we have outfitted with fluorescent lights. The top of the fridge has never worked for me. Besides, my cat likes to sit up there. If additional heat is required for germination, and it will be, two of the tiers will be draped with plastic and a soil heating cable installed on both tiers, will provide all the heat required.
Before I begin planting, the seeding flats (if previously used) will need to be sterilized with bleach and soapy water, rinsed and dried. The seed starting mix will have to be thawed out, so that means a trip through the snow to my greenhouse. I’ll give it a day inside before I attempt to fill the seeding flats, just to make sure it is completely thawed and, this is very important, warmed up. Tomorrow, I can begin seeding and tell winter to go fly a kite!
March 11th, 2007 