There is a garden centre in Wilton which we have never been in to. Partly because there has never been need but mainly because both Barb and The Builder told me that it was very expensive and that it didn’t really have anything special to justify the extra expense. Yesterday, however, we called in because it was en route from Salisbury to Barb’s place and I wanted to pick up a melon seedling for the greenhouse to continue outside/greenhouse experiments. After all - how expensive can a melon seedling be?

I have to tell you - it’s lovely. It took some hunting to find a melon seedling, but when I did --- there were Cape Gooseberry seedlings there as well!!!!!!! And well advanced Cape Gooseberry seedlings. I bought three. I looked for soya bean seedlings but there weren’t any. Or none that I could find. There were, however, loads of different sorts of capsicum seedlings and a huge variety of tomatoes.

And the seed selection is amazing. So many different sorts of things from all over the world. I bought some asparagus pea seeds and another packet of soya bean seeds. I planted, on Thursday, a final sowing of soya beans with the plan that if they didn’t germinate inside ten days I would abandon soya beans for this year and buy a fresh packet for next. So far I’ve had a 100 % failure rate with the present packet spread over two years. I begin to think it might be the seeds rather than me! Now that I’ve run across a packet in a garden centre (has never happened in or around Chesterfield!) I might try a fresh sowing when we get home. And I will buy a small electric propagator for next year. They’re only £25 and would advance things by quite a way.

So my three Cape Gooseberries, 2 melons (there are two seedlings in the pot) and two packets of seeds cost me £9. I don’t think that’s too bad, especially when you consider how advanced the Cape Gooseberries are :-)