Spring fresco.
In Oxfam I buy some slug deterrent. "It really works, " says the old lady, who is serving. " I hope so," I say because, presuming on its green credentials, it is far from cheap. Maybe I sound mildly irritated at the implication that it might not work, because she adds: "Last year somebody sold me some anti-squirrel stuff, which didn't work at all." "The squirrels liked it, then," I say. "Yes," she says, " I think they did.
In neglected gardens the dandelions are in flower. So thickly ranked are the plants, and so large are the blooms, the first of the season (none has yet gone to seed, so there are no clocks for the wind to puff at), that they might have been cultivated, grown for rabbits, or to be blanched for salad.
3 comments:
The phrase "slug deterrent" is surely a euphemism. The aim is to kill them. The green policy seeks to avoid killing birds who may eat a poisoned slug. Is there any avidence that birds eat poisoned slugs? Here, chez Bonden, we go in for slug genocide with no apologies.
You're right. I suppose it was the Oxfam context that made me employ so insidious a euphemism.I wondered about it at the time. I to extreme lengths not have slugs in the lettuces.
I've never known such a year for dandelions. There are fields here which are normally monoculture green, which are just yellow as far as the eye can see. I do rather rejoice in their triumph over modern farming!
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