Mummy's little helper
Today I decided to sow some parsnips; Madeline decided to supervise, though obviously I was not doing it right, judging by her haughty expression!
First I collected twenty of the loo-roll tubes I had saved over winter, and I decided to microwave them (to sterilise them) as per a suggestion I had seen online. Unfortunately no timings were suggested, so I set the microwave to 2 minutes. Bad move! Within the first minute, evil-smelling smoke started pouring out of the microwave! Luckily none of them caught fire, but I won't be doing that again!
I found that I could fit the twenty tubes into a seed tray with room to spare, so I added another eight untreated ones, filled them all with compost and - thinking that parsnips, being related to parsley, might respond similarly - watered them with boiling water. Now I just have to wait...