Canal Boat — February 2018

44 February 2018 Canal Boat canalboat.co.uk

BOATER’S BREAK

S

ummer feels a very long way off and
the long winter days seen to be
interminable. The ground is too cold
to plant much, trees are bare and
flowering plants mostly dormant. Still, as
they say; it is all in the planning.
Planting anything in February, except
perhaps for bare rooted fruit trees – not a
great choice for a boat – would seem to be
laughable but it should not be too long
before Snowdrops start to push their way
up through the frozen soil to be followed
by other early spring bulbs such as bright
yellow Aconites and vivid blue Iris
Reticulata. This makes the effort of
planting a few bulbs in autumn all the
more valuable. If you haven’t, at least the
wild Snowdrops will not let us down if you
know where to look for them.
For Christmas I was given a pair of
self-watering planters for the boat. While I
wait for the spring to plant them up I plan
to get out the paints and decorate them
with some ‘traditional’ canal ware designs.
There are several brands available and for
the more adventurous amongst us they
can be home made, there are excellent
instructions on http://www.growveg.com/guides.

Even though it is cold outside there are

still some seeds that can be planted if you

have a bit of space inside. Beans, peas and

herb seeds can be sprouted for a tasty

addition to winter salads, also fast growing

salad leaves. I especially love pea sprouts,

let them develop three or fours pairs of

leaves before you pick them and enjoy a

delicious fresh pea flavour. Basil is also a

winner for flavour and just a few little

leaves really do give a lot of flavour. If you

can provide a little heat, chillies can be

sown now. Chillies take a long while to

mature and the longer growing season you

can give them the better.

Much of my ‘gardening’ in winter

involves reading books and seed

catalogues looking for something new to

grow and on the pea theme I have come

across a dwarf variety of pea called Half

Pint (Tom Thumb) from Suttons seeds.

These grow just 15-20 cms tall, perfect for

those self watering pots on the boat! If you

want flowers I can recommend Patio Sweet

Peas, tiny plants which, if you keep on top

of the feeding requirements, will give you a

wonderful pot full of sweetly scented and

attractive blooms.

In the meantime to provide some instant

early spring like colour, pop down to the

garden centre and plant up a container full

of Hyacinths which for all their beauty

don’t seem to mind the cold and perhaps a

few Polyanthus. At least we can pretend

spring is nearer that it really is!

WITH SEB JAY

CB

ROOFTOP

GARDENING

with Julie Clark

LAST MONTH’S ANSWERS

Name the following

features of the Caldon

Canal:

Put your answers into the grid so that the letters in the red box spell out a place on the Caldon Canal

WATERWAYS

ACROSTIC

 A tunnel, and also an arm

 His statue stands by the canal

 An isolated canal pub

 A flight of five locks

 A river that the canal joins

 An aqueduct, and

also a flight of locks

 One of these forms a

canalside museum

 A basin that’s home to a

boat club

 A tight tunnel near the terminus

 Where the canal once continued to

Regents, Stort, Basingstoke, Wey, Kennet and Avon, Thames, Stroudwater, Paddington, Hertford Union, Ouse
Putting the answers into the grid in the right order spells out the final answer: Wey and Arun.

A clear February evening offers boaters an

opportunity to glimpse the lifecycle of a star

in two celestial stops. Start by looking south

for the iconic constellation of Orion. Its easy

to identify by its three stars in a line forming

Orion’s belt. You might notice a small drop of

stars working their way down towards the

horizon from the belt. This is Orion’s Sword.

Swing a pair of binoculars onto the sword and

you’ll be greeted by a misty haze of light. The

haze you’re seeing is actually a giant gas

cloud some 1400 light years away known as

the Orion Nebula, and is where new stars are

being born.

Now cast your view above the belt and look

for a bright orange star called Betelgeuse. It’s

a red supergiant some 850 times bigger than

the sun, and a star that is right at the end of

its life. Some astronomers think that

Betelgeuse might have already exploded as a

supernova, but being 603 light years away

from us the light from that explosion hasn’t

yet reached us. So, its quite possible that

when we look at Betelgeuse we could be

looking at a star that is no longer there!

Discover Orion’s secrets with a pair of

binoculars. Image Credit Seb Jay

NASA/JPL