Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

PINEAPPLE you've become fashionable, put in something completely outlandish, like a cactus f'rinstance and see what she does in reciprocation, good game, good game, Chers Lyn xxx.

pineapple

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

PINEAPPLE you've become fashionable, put in something completely outlandish, like a cactus f'rinstance and see what she does in reciprocation, good game, good game, Chers Lyn xxx.

I'm toying with doing something outrageous. Maybe an imitation plastic climber (yes they do exist) festooned with multicoloured glow in the dark condoms (do they exist?) fluttering gaily in the breeze like Tibetan prayer flags

[Deleted User]

DO IT go on I DARE YOU!!!!!

mardatha

MrsL ..... you are very very bad!

[Deleted User]

YEAH, Good innit?

P'praps we should get Pineapple to make a little scarecrow for the front garden, with glow in the dark fingers and a glow in the dark................NOSE!!! Oh yes, I know what you were thinking!!!!!!

thriftwizard

I would so love to see that, Pineapple! Some of my neighbours are so caught up in the Competitive Petunias "*** In Bloom" meme that they think my front garden, a little Forest Garden, with snowdrops, bluebells, daffodils, rosemary, sage, & hardy geraniums growing underneath berries & currant bushes, which in turn are understory to apples, quinces, a cherry & hazelnuts, is a "disgrace!" The "*** In Bloom" committee may deplore it, but we love it, the birds love it and some of the more enlightened (and generally older) neighbours love it too.

It's interesting to talk to some of our older neighbours about how gardens used to be used around here. Our area was built up over 100 years ago, mostly to house estate workers from the Big House close by, and is mostly decent, solid little 3-bed terraced houses with longish gardens, punctuated by the odd bigger house like ours. It's not posh but very pleasant; amongst the folk in our street are university lecturers, musicians with the local Symphony Orchestra, teachers, computer programmers, reasonably successful artists, owners of small businesses. Several people our age have returned after moving to posher, more "successful" areas & hating it. We have a few older people left who moved here when they had small children (the last one who had lived here all her life died a couple of years ago) and they laugh at the proliferation of bamboo & decking, though they're very interested in all the new & different ideas of what a garden should look like; you can draw a plan of how gardens were used when they first came. A concrete path down one side, and a washing line alongside it, a little patch of lawn with a rose bed on the other side, then straight into the productive area, with a greenhouse plonked wherever it caught the sun best and at least two-thirds of the area given over to cabbages, leeks & potatoes. Most people had a chicken run or a tower of rabbit hutches or a pigeon loft at the end of the garden, behind an apple & pear or two; there may well have been an "outhouse" down there too, and a coal bunker. There was competition; the size of your leeks was crucial, and the number of blooms on your rose bushes, but no-one left it to run wild, and very few people dreamed of doing anything different with "their" space.

I wonder if those of us who are lucky enough to have them will go back to using our outdoor spaces productively again? Or whether the patio-heater, decking, posh gravel & glass balls are here to stay?

[Deleted User]

THRIFTWIZARD did you see my amendment to my last post before or after you were posting about glass balls?

elona

My rebellious instincts are far more pedestrian as I was about to suggest ornamental veg in the baskets just to see the look on her face when you popped outside to cut some for dinner

DD and DH have gone to collect youngest DD from university so have prepped veg etc and chicken - planning lemon and garlic chicken with veg bake and potato salad and rhubarb crumble to follow and eating in the garden if it is not too windy around twelve o'clock.

Made a ciabatta with chicken salad, diet coke and couple of pieces of fruit to take to youngest for a snack as she used up all the food she had.

DD's bedding is on the line outside and giving her bedroom a quick tidy and clean and opening window etc. before she arrives. Quite excited to have her home :j

Hug to all.

pineapple

thriftwizard wrote: »

Or whether the patio-heater, decking, posh gravel & glass balls are here to stay?

Hey I have a glass ball! Actually I have several (on poles). They are solar lights and follow the line of the steps up to the top rear garden.
My nicest garden imo was at the front of a 'double fronted' cottage.
On one side of the central path there were rows of veg and the other side was a profusion of cottage garden flowers and herbs. People used to comment how nice it looked. Can't believe there are places in the States where you are not allowed to grow food at the front.

[Deleted User]

I think gardens for food will become a necessity not a choice if the price of things keeps escalating at the current rate. I think the problem at the moment is younger people aren't used to gardens being cultivated for food, it hasn't been the norm for a couple of generations now and they don't have the skills or confidence perhaps to try veg gardening on thier own. When I was a young'un and at senior school the local secondary school had,woodwork, home repairs, gardening and beekeeping for the boys and homemaking, needlework, cookery and childcare for the girls as part of thier everyday education. All things like that went out of the window with the introduction of comprehensive education, just not enough time for it all in the school day any more,I personally think the skills are a loss to society and people would fare much better if they were taught how to make and mend and provide for thier families. Maybe in the fullness of time necessity will reintroduce the teaching of life skills too, who knows?