Pig Sty Avenue

Looking at the blog's stats, I saw someone had searched this post today. I wrote that shortly before moving to Scotland and giving up the allotment I shared with Dad, so never followed up on the plan I was jokingly suggesting, of becoming a monkey puzzle tree tycoon. A quick google shows that it's not difficult to grow, propagated only from seed. They are pricey, about a quid each, but for some reason 3 year old plants are going on eBay for between £10 and £50. So that could make up for the loss of the Salvia divinorum trade, which hit us when eBay decided it didn't want hallucinogenic plants sold on its site; (and anyway, the Daily Mail put the kibosh on it, when Dad read a story there about a woman who thought she was a pumpkin after ingesting Sally D).  Thing is with an allotment, you want something that'll cover the costs of seeds and oomska. It's not-for-profit, but it needs to be not-for-loss, too.

Every once in a way you get a reminder that canny auld Jarra hasn't really changed. Here's a family who had their monkey puzzle tree nicked out of their front "garden". Maybe it was a militant group of garden designers, taking direct action against dubious horticultural aesthetics. They are surprisingly expensive . Maybe there's a dearth of the buggers. And we should cash in by sowing some Araucaria araucana seeds at the allotment, and flogging them on a couple of years down the road, at a considerable profit, to numpties who watch those poxy "garden makeover" programmes on telly. Or something.