Seeds of Success

PREDICTABLY, the Kenyan team of athletes returned home from the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham with a clutch of medals and in the process posed fresh problems for one of the least enthusiastic gardeners in Africa.

He has got to live with the frustration of knowing that Kenya's athletes will continue to win medals outside of the planting season. This makes extra work for him. The scorching heat and lack of water would soon see off whatever tender young plants he sought to nurture. Already he has a backlog to cater for.

Brother Colm O'Connell of Buttevant in Co Cork is the gardener in question. He is better known as an athletics' coach in Kenya. Curiously he became interested in gardening in much the same way he took up athletics' coaching involuntarily.