vegetable veneer

We were drawn together by an urge to grow vegetables. We organised a ‘kale-off’: kale picked because we read it was ‘an easy vegetable to grow’ and ‘reputed to improve and sweeten with frost’. However, at the garden centre our eyes were diverted elsewhere, to onion, garlic and peas – from the ‘can be sown now’ section (it was October). We planted in a hurry, wanting results straight away. Our ultimate result blossomed before our shoots sprouted. Little had we known that in sowing such seeds we were guaranteeing the end of our gardening careers.