Post by Nick OdellOn Wed, 24 Apr 2024 00:21:51 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver"
[]
Post by Nick OdellPost by J. P. Gillivera blood test, and coming out (about 10:10) I saw the sign (chalkboard)
saying something like "recommended by doctor: gardening group here every
Tuesday 9-12"; I looked them out (they work on the area round the
surgery - I'd known about the for years) and asked if I could do
anything unskilled, not committing, for half an hour or so. Ended up
digging until 12 (with break for coffee etc.), and enjoying it and the
company; will probably return next week (then we'll see).
I have absolutely no interest in gardening whatsoever: I just do what
I need to do to keep the garden habitable and the plants under
Me too. I have a small (two by half metre?) plot at the front, in the
middle of a larger area of pebbles over membrane - which I still had to
weed, as dust and presumably seeds blow in and settle between the
pebbles; and a larger (two by three maybe?) at the back, which nobody
can see anyway. I was on the whole delighted when what I call marigolds
(big orange daisy-like) came one year, and proceeded to take over both
the bed and the pebbles around, but other things do appear too. But I
eventually found a (not near) neighbour who both likes gardening and was
willing to do it, so I'm delighted to pay him a small amount monthly
(reminds me - I must raise it due to inflation) to keep them (and the
buddleias - I have one front and one back) in order. The front's looking
nice at the moment - mixture of the orange flowers and clouds of little
blue ones (forget-me-nots I think). (The back is mostly covered with - I
forget the proper name, I remember "elephant's ears" - which another
neighbour suggested a few years ago.)
Post by Nick Odellcontrol. But I rather think that if gardening were offered more as a
social activity in the way you have described, it could be rather fun.
Well, I only went last week as I was there anyway, and also thought of
it as a social contribution (to keeping the area around the surgery
looking nice), but I am intending to go back this Tuesday, and who
knows; the exercise will undoubtedly do me good. As long as there's
someone to tell me what to do - like you, I have no interest whatsoever
in the subject. The social aspect seems nice too. Of course, my future
in the judicial system (which has finally creaked into life - something
happening on 8 May) may put the kybosh (sp?) on it.
(I do have one houseplant, the hippeastrum [amaryllis]. But that's
because someone gave it to me as a gift one year [big bulb in a box],
and I thought I ought to show willing, so potted it up [though I think
that might have been the following year!]. Apart from the first year
when I added more compost, the only attention it gets is the dregs when
I rinse my mug [it lives on the draining board by the kitchen sink], and
moving to the lounge windowsill when it flowers so the neighbours can
share it. And I pull off the leaves when they die off. It has flowered
every year but one for, might be a decade [and I think it may not this;
the shoot isn't coming as fast as usual].)
John
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)***@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
a joke doesn't become a dad joke until it's full groan