The green shoots die off

Last month I planted some vegetables in pot noodle style tubs in my window sill. I did not have very high expectations that I would ever eat the produce grown like this, but I thought it was worth trying anyway. I got a very pleasant surprise at the start of this month, when I saw green shoots peeking out of the tub.

These small green shoots rapidly grew into large healthy plants and so last week I followed the instructions on the packet and separated each of the plants into their own pot so that they would have more growing room. It was immediately obvious that this was not a good idea because the plants never thrived in their new pots. At this stage they have completely died out.

In recent times the newspapers have started using headlines like "The green shoots of recovery have been spotted!" whenever the economic statistics look good. I hope the green shoots of Ireland's recovery will not suffer a similar fate to my vegetables.