Getting Older

[Howyoudoin]

I just spent a very pleasurable couple of hours tending to my plants in the local allotment.

I wonder what my 15 year old self would have thought of that?

Not much I'd bet.

I had zero interest in gardening when I was a youngster, despite both my parents spending half their lives in the garden.

Isn't it funny how things change?


HYD

[marronier]

There is an old adage about National Hunt jockeys that says " Jump jockeys don`t start thinking deeply until they reach 35, when they realise they don`t bounce as high as they used to or mend as quickly. If they did they wouldn`t be jump jockeys in the first place."


Deep and forward thinking is anathema to tender years.

[dionaeamuscipula]

I am sitting watching an event today having had my first every concessionary entry. Hurray for old age! Now where are my glasses?

DM

[tjh290633]

I gave up on vegetables when the slugs and the wireworms got the upper hand. Having a wild garden is one of the compensations of old age. It mostly looks after itself, but every now and then you have to hack it back into shape. Cutting the grass is enough exercise, thank you.

I leave the vegetable game to you younger folk.

TJH

[Gengulphus]

Now that I've retired and have got the time, I find gardening quite a good way of being out in the open air and getting a bit of exercise doing something which achieves something else as well (I've never been able to get into exercise that doesn't achieve anything else, e.g. going to the gym). It's also quite therapeutic doing what I think of as "destructive gardening" - for instance, chopping back a patch of unwanted brambles, preferably with the extra satisfaction of getting their roots out as well!

But I agree with TJH about vegetables, apart from the fact that I did little gardening before I retired and never got very much into them in the first place. For me, the solution is fruit, without really trying to get optimum yields, etc. Especially fruit that largely looks after itself - I get quite a lot of gooseberries, blackcurrants, raspberries and rhubarb each year with little effort beyond the hacking back that would be needed anyway. The only real difference is that the hacking back needs to be a bit less indiscriminate and some bits of it require a bit more equipment - for instance, a good set of gardening gauntlets are very desirable for hacking back a bramble that has decided to go through the centre of a gooseberry bush!

Gengulphus

[tjh290633]

I've been into raspberries and strawberries, the latter needing protection from the blackbirds. Raspberries spread, and you have to cut out last year's fruiting stems, but a satisfying crop. Next door's loganberries also wandered under the fence, and we enjoyed a lot of them, as did the blackbirds.

Nowadays we are limited to brambles and wild cherries/plums, which again multiply in profusion if you are not careful

TJH

[Gengulphus]

For me, the solution is fruit, without really trying to get optimum yields, etc

What kind of yields are you looking for?

3-5% with a 5 year history of rising gooseberries? What about diversificaton? If you're all in strawberries then that's a considerable risk to your fruiture income.

I place a lot more emphasis on low effort and personal preference than on yield as such - as a result, strawberries don't feature in my fruiture portfolio! And if anything, rising gooseberries are a bit of a problem, of the type technically known as a 'glut'. Fortunately, it's a type of problem that is easily solved by a policy of benign neglect...

Gengulphus

[Rhyd6]

We craftily let out our lower field as allotments for the princely sum of £1 a year plus donations of surplus fruit and veg. Plenty of gain, no pain---- what's not to like.

R6

[UncleEbenezer]

3-5% with a 5 year history of rising gooseberries? What about diversificaton? If you're all in strawberries then that's a considerable risk to your fruiture income.

I'm all in blackberries. A very robust yield. Just enjoyed some I picked a couple of hours ago.

[brightncheerful]

When I was 15 I used to spend hours tending the plants in the small patch of garden that my parents had allocated me. I would dream of becoming a gardener when I was older. Made a mistake telling my parents, my mother was not impressed; she had other ideas for my occupation - not that I took any notice.

As soon as I got a home of my own, i started growing herbs - something to eat whilst gardening. As I progressed from a couple of raised beds in a back yard to about a quarter of an acre with three lawns I realised just how time-consumig and tiring it is to maintain a large garden to the expectations of one's partner on having a tidy well-maintained garden.

The only grass I have to cut now is the street pavement verge which we frontagers are obliged to cut. Other people's trees shed leaves on our land. I still do a bit of gardening now when I have the time. Actually it is more tidying the garden - I'm not into pruning, just let the plants fend for themselves. The bay tree just a few inches tall when I planted it some 13 years ago is now about the same height as the roof ridge of a neighbouring house. The recent torrential rain has destroyed the structure of my lavender bushes and the ongoing heat has accelerated the growth and fading of the flowers. Soon it will be time to get the shears out. Sadly, the hops is showing signs of rust: pity the plant was thriving well a few months ago, I was hoping for enough hops flowers to stuff a pillow.

Allotment now? You must be joking. Too much like hard work. Much rather buy locally-grown organic veg from the market staff.

[Howyoudoin]

Allotment now? You must be joking. Too much like hard work. Much rather buy locally-grown organic veg from the market staff.

I don't think anyone would expect allotment produce to replace the weekly shop.

It's just a place to go and relax your mind, if not your body, for a little while and get away from all other distractions. It is for me anyway.

The fact that you may also get the pleasure of smelling a wonderful Chandos Beauty or picking something nice to put on your dinner plate at the end of a hard day is purely a bonus.

HYD

[AleisterCrowley]

I've just got back from a week or so back home staying with my mum. She grows a lot of vegetables, and it was great to be able to decide to have a light lunch and amble down the garden to pick a handful of lettuce/'mixed leaves' for a sandwich : picked, rinsed under the tap and eaten within five minutes! Her home grown stuff really does taste vastly better than the plastic-wrapped sweaty horrors in the supermarket.

[CryptoPlankton]

I've just got back from a week or so back home staying with my mum. She grows a lot of vegetables, and it was great to be able to decide to have a light lunch and amble down the garden to pick a handful of lettuce/'mixed leaves' for a sandwich : picked, rinsed under the tap and eaten within five minutes! Her home grown stuff really does taste vastly better than the plastic-wrapped sweaty horrors in the supermarket.

That's cos your mum's obviously a gem...

[melonfool]

Are these puns the tip of the iceberg? Any more and you'll get a rocket!

Mel