Canal Boat — January 2018

44 January 2018 Canal Boat canalboat.co.uk

BOATER’S BREAK

M

y enjoyment of the canal system
during the winter months is often
confined to running the engine
and having a cuppa on board while the
batteries get a bit of a charge or, if I am
lucky, a long walk along the tow path on a
crisp wintery afternoon. Either way I miss
the long days of summer cruising and the
colourful boats full of flowers.
I am sure the Canal & River Trust’s
Boats in Bloom competition this year
brought even more flowers on board than
usual and I certainly displayed my
certificate with some pride. It is, however,
never too early to plan ahead and
Christmas is the ideal time to drop a few
hints in the expectation of receiving a
welcome horticultural gifts. Garden
centres are full of do it yourself growing
kits, everything from herbs to Bonsai
Trees in handy packages complete with
pot, compost and seeds. Anything
marketed for growing on windowsills or
patios are ideal for growing afloat. If your
kit includes Tomatoes try to ensure they
are of the dwarf or tumbling varieties.
Should you want to give a gift of seeds wild
flowers are a good choice, they have very

simple requirements, are far richer in

nectar that F1 hybrids and therefore a

magnet for bees and butterflies. You do

not even need to buy potting compost as

this tends to be too nutrient rich so a cup

of natural garden soil will do perfectly, no

feeding is necessary and therefore nothing

is being put into the water system.

I hope you have all got bulbs planted up

now in anticipation of spring? If so a handy

tip would be to put about and inch layer of

course grit over the surface of the soil.

This serves as a little protection for the

bulbs, keeps the moisture in the compost

as well as adding a little extra weight to

the container therefore helping to prevent

any unwanted accidents on a windy day.

Keep an eye on the watering, just barely

moist is perfect but you do not want it to

freeze solid however bone dry is not too

good because even though it looks as

though nothing much is happening above

ground – there is plenty of action going on

below! Also, if you have other pots

overwintering such as Sweet Peas watch

out for any opportunist squirrels or cats

who might just fancy a dig around!

In the meantime, just to have a little

winter cheer on board, I have planted up a

pot full of colourful seasonal plants which

will survive the winter weather for a few

weeks before they can be changed for

another arrangement. It may be cheating

but it still brings a smile to passers by.

Happy Christmas to you all!

WITH SEB JAY

CB

ROOFTOP

GARDENING

with Julie Clark

LAST MONTH’S ANSWERS

Name a river or canal in

southern England:

Put your answers into the grid so that the letters in the red box spell out a southern waterway, currently disused but being restored.

WATERWAYS

ACROSTIC

 Linking Little Venice to Limehouse

 That’s a tributary of the River Lee

 Reopened after restoration in 1991

 Which goes the furthest south on the

national network

 Forming the only

currently navigable

east-west route

across southern England

 Sometimes known as the Royal River

 Which forms part of the Cotswold Canals

restoration

 That’s an arm of the Grand Union

 Which provides a short but useful

link in East London

 That used to be navigable northwards

from Lewes

Wolverhampton, Dudley, Tividale, Aston, Gas Street, Coseley, Windmill End, Titford, Bradley, Joey
Putting the answers into the grid in the right order spells out the final answer: TAME VALLEY

Imagine hopping off your boat onto a light

beam. You’ll be standing on the surface of the

moon in a little over a second from now. Eight

minutes later you’ll reach the Sun. From here

Mars is just another eight light minutes away,

and Jupiter is voyaged to in less than 50

minutes since the start of your journey. The

sights will amaze you for sure, just as they

will from down here on Earth when our four

‘space stops’ gather in close proximity to

each other, at least to our eyes, in the first

two weeks of January.

If 6am isn’t too early, the first thing you’ll

notice is a bright star-like object sat low to

your south. This is Jupiter, the biggest planet

in our solar system. Right next to it is the

dimmer and redder hue of Mars. The two

planets appear closest together on the

morning of Sunday 7 January, when they are

almost inseparable to the naked eye. Our

planetary pairing remain neighbours when a

crescent moon joins them at dawn on 11

January. It’ll be a spectacular sight, especially

if you follow them through to their last

glimmers at sunrise just after 8am.

Jupiter is our biggest planet.

NASA/JPL