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    Green Fingers
    Green Fingers
    Green Fingers
    Ebook136 pages1 hour

    Green Fingers

    By Dandi Palmer

    ()

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    About this ebook

    There is a strange glow in Penny’s greenhouse.
    She knows how to grow every flower, fruit and vegetable you can name, and perhaps even ones that come from another planet.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDodo Books
    Release dateOct 26, 2010
    ISBN9781452352787
    Green Fingers
    Author

    Dandi Palmer

    An illustrator for over thirty years, Dandi Palmer has been commissioned by the Radio Times, Prima, UNESCO, BBC Focus, and many more publications. www.dandipal.uk has a selection of picture books as well as samples of other illustrations and portfolio of published work.The illustrator also writes science fiction, fiction, and supernatural/fantasy novels for adults under the name of Jane Palmer.

    Read more from Dandi Palmer

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      Book preview

      Green Fingers - Dandi Palmer

      CHAPTER 1

      It looked as though the other flowers in the greenhouse had backed away from the dragon arum. They knew that space belonged to the deep red bloom, and woe betide any fuchsia that dared to cross it with a pretty pink sepal.

      Penny put the livid flower in a corner where it was dwarfed by the grapevine. The red lily shouldn’t have been there at all. Knowing nothing about plants, her father kept it like a pet. Given the poorly state of its leaves, he had probably been watering it with malt whisky. The gardener drew the line at flowers that didn’t know their place. Wilting or not, the dragon arum would have to go back to his study and its alcoholic diet.

      Penny was very possessive about her greenhouse. The riding lessons, piano tuition, and party frocks she could live without, but no one messed with her flowerpots, especially Lola, her younger sister. Fortunately, whenever she came over from Philadelphia to stay, the ten-year-old spent most of her time glued to the Internet. Playing with potting compost was the last thing on her mind

      Mr Wicks, the housekeeper, ensured Lola kept away from junk food, dubious websites and didn’t buy four-wheel drive desert buggies on eBay and, apart from that, left her mainly to her own devices. She was so far ahead of her own age group there was no point in sending her to school for the couple of weeks before the summer holidays. Lola was probably ready for graduation back in Philadelphia anyway.

      Unlike her World Wide Web wise sister, Penny had a jaundiced view of technology. To her, plants were far more important and computers were best planted in a deep hole. They kept people from the natural world, the soil, insects, and need to have a bath every now and then. However bizarre or exciting, the images on Lola’s monitor were only two dimensional, even when printed out. The bugs gardeners dealt with could be eliminated by washing up liquid or slug pellets. Try spraying a virus-infected computer with washing up water and see what happens. Lola was very grateful that her older sister kept away from her PC.

      Penny cross-pollinated an ornamental daisy in the hope it would produce a prize bloom. She covered the flower to deter insects that might have had other ideas, then opened the windows to allow in a few bees to pollinate the tomatoes. The daisy from last year's experiment remained resolutely in bud and she couldn’t wait for it to open. The thing would probably turn out to be a disaster - all her daisies were. Penny had won no end of awards for her fuchsias, fruit, squashes, and vegetables, but her hybrid daisies turned out to be either fifteen feet tall with straggly petals or giant mop heads on short stems.

      Her friend, Mr Bellingham, told her to stick to plants she could look in the eye. He didn't have much time for flowers, apart from petunias and tagetes. His allotment was full of onions, potatoes, parsnips, beans and cabbage. The Bellinghams ate so many potatoes they were shaped like King Edwards. Any one else might have wondered how a 14-year-old could manage a huge garden and spacious greenhouse; Mr Bellingham was old and wise enough to see no harm in it. It was hardly Penny’s fault that her father was a wealthy executive. The retired train driver reckoned that those who wanted to grow things should fill as much space as they could. With a garden the size of Penny's, that was hard work.

      CHAPTER 2

      The large ginger tomcat stopped sniffing the greenhouse roof for rivals to listen. An odd, chittering sound was coming from the open window. It wasn't high pitched enough to be mice. It might have been large beetles locked in mortal combat. Though not edible, they could be good sport. Oscar poked his scarred nose inside. Before the rest of him could follow and ruin the lovingly propagated pots below, there was an enraged crackle, and several of his whiskers were singed to their roots.

      With a yowl of rage, the tom lost his grip. He skidded down the glass into the water butt. All dignity now lost, the neighbourhood’s feline bully hauled himself out. Oscar slunk off to the wildlife thicket at the bottom of the garden where there was only an audience of caterpillars and a hedgehog who paid attention to no one.

      Lola would have been in bed four hours ago if she hadn’t discovered a website on unexplained phenomena. Unable to free herself from its intriguing tentacles, she came to a page explaining how the aurora borealis was really there to conceal an alien spaceship just above the North Pole.

      Her concentration was broken by the sudden commotion outside Penny's greenhouse.

      Lola quickly logged off and glanced outside before leaping into bed. It was bound to have woken her father.

      Troy Masters rolled over in bed. He wished he hadn't eaten that working supper of fish curry, strawberry sorbet, and white wine. With a daughter who grew enough vegetables to supply her class with sensible alternatives to burgher and chips, he should have brought his clients home for a healthy option. Penny could make impressive vegetable dishes. Unfortunately, his important clients expected something more pretentious than leek casserole or tomato salad.

      Troy sat up with a start. That wasn't his stomach grumbling. It was the ruddy tom from next door trying to get into Penny's greenhouse. As the wail of the humiliated Oscar faded into the distance, he reached for his watch. It was half past three in the morning and there was a board meeting at nine. At times like these the executive thought about retiring to the coast to throw pots. Not for long, though. He had become too attached to his large house and expensive car. So Troy set the alarm clock, and took a swig of herbal sleeping potion from one of the bottles on the table by his bed.

      If the lifestyle of Penny’s father gave him a heart attack before she reached 16, she wouldn't starve. In fact, with her healthy diet she could live to be 200. Her sister would probably link minds with a computer instead, and end up in some virtual reality limbo. That would be their mother’s problem.

      ***

      Oscar's angry yellow eyes glowered out from the nettles. Playing safe, the local hedgehog took a detour round him to reach the compost heap where she regularly crunched beetles. And the eerie glow coming from the greenhouse was nothing to do with her. If humans thought their tomatoes needed night-lights, why should Prickles be bothered?

      The resentful ginger cat continued to seethe until its fur was dry, and then sneaked off to beat up the Persian cat three doors down.

      ***

      An hour later, Lola climbed out of bed and logged on to raise her friend in Arizona. Negotiating time zones was enough to make an insomniac out of anyone.

      What's new Lola? asked Mario.

      This neighbour has a stupid cat which is always trying to get into Penny's greenhouse. It just woke the neighbourhood up, Lola typed.

      What did it want to get into the greenhouse for?

      No idea. Must be something she's growing.

      Your sister sounds great. Around here, 14-year-olds are only interested in diets, sleepover parties and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

      Well, she wins prizes and things. When she isn’t digging she spends most of her time at the allotments talking to the gardeners.

      What's an allotment?

      Sort of garden without a house. People rent them to grow things. Our grandfather used to have one before Dad bought him a house.

      My Mum's got a large garden. Think Penny could send over some English seeds for her to try out?

      Lola wasn't sure. Pen mentioned something about them being stopped by customs because of pests and things. I'll get her to send a seed catalog. She might know how to get round it. There was the skirling of an enraged cat a couple of gardens down. Oh no, Oscar's coming back! He'll wake everyone up again. Better go.

      CHAPTER 3

      Gordon handed out the last punnet of raspberries. Now everyone in the class was satisfied, except Damien. He had an allergy to any fruit with pips, green vegetables, the class guinea pigs, chalk dust, and computer studies. Gordon would have given him a stick of rhubarb, but Penny was always scrupulously fair. She remembered to include a punnet of blackcurrants for Damien. The seeds in them were so small, even he wouldn’t notice

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