Ficlet: Mystery Mix

[badly_knitted]

 


Title: Mystery Mix
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Jack, Ianto.
Rating: G
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: It’s time for Jack and Ianto to get started growing things for their garden.
Word Count: 500
Content Notes: None necessary.
Written For: Prompt 88: Mix at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.




“Oooh!” Jack exclaimed, leaning over Ianto’s shoulder and peering into the small package he’d just opened. “Seeds! What are we going to grow?”


Ianto snorted. “We? Knowing you, I’ll be the one who winds up doing most of the work.”


Jack pouted. “That’s so not true! I helped put in the perennials and all the bedding plants we bought last year!”


“That’s right, you did,” Ianto agreed, remembering. “Sorry, I’m so used to ending up doing most of your paperwork that I sometimes forget it’s only the things you don’t like doing that you leave to me.” He smiled at his husband. “You even put them in the right way up.”


The pout grew. “Hey! I’ll have you know I was gardening long before you were even born! I grew prize-winning vegetables; you should have seen my leeks!”


“I’m sure they were very impressive.”


“Biggest you ever saw!” Jack peered into the package again. “You never said what we’ll be growing,” he reminded Ianto.


“You’re right, I didn’t.” Ianto emptied his purchases onto the kitchen table. “I already bought vegetable seeds from Wilko’s, and we can pick up some bedding plants at the garden centre at the weekend, but I thought it might be fun to try something a bit different and I found this seed company that sells just about every kind of seeds you can imagine, from lawn daisies and dandelions, to banyan trees.”


“I don’t think there’s room in the roof garden for a Banyan tree,” Jack said dubiously.


“Good thing I wasn’t planning on growing one then. I got these instead; seed mixes. This one has a list of the seeds included.” Ianto held up one of the packets. “But these two don’t, so we’ll have no idea what might come up.”


“Mystery seeds?” Jack’s face lit up at the thought.


“Yep! I got a couple of other things too, some sea hollies and some heritage tomato varieties, but mostly I wanted the seed mixes. If any seedlings come up we’ll have to see if we can identify them.”


“Sounds like fun.”


They spent the rest of the day sowing seeds in empty margarine tubs and putting them in propagators in the greenhouse, and for the next couple of weeks Jack was out there every morning, checking to see if anything was coming up yet, but eventually he came dashing in one morning to tell Ianto that there were seedlings in seven of the dozen pots of mixed seeds they’d sown. The tomatoes were coming up too, but Jack was less interested in them because he’d grown tomatoes before.


By summer, they had several dozen mystery plants dotted around the roof garden, some in the beds and others in pots. One twining climber was making itself at home threading itself through the buddleia they’d put in last year, but it showed no sign of flowering.


“So what is it?” asked Martha, who was visiting.


“I don’t have a clue,” Jack beamed. “But I grew it myself.”



The End