"Keith (Dorset)" wrote in message
Hi 'Farm 1',

Thanks for posting back. I admit it - we do actually have some junk
here!

LOL. I'm sure each and every one of us does! I sometimes wonder if
it's only when someone else points out that's it "junk" and we have to
justify it's existence that we really look at it with fresh eyes and
then heave it or store it.

I know that I constantly have to tell Himself (who is a neatnick) why
I have a particular item of junk. (Mind you, he is also very quick to
use "my" junk if he needs it for some particular thing round the farm
and doesn't see the irony in having had a fight with me about me
trying to keep it for my reserved use for one of "my" projects)

This morning I have been shifting some builders' rubble 'out of
sight'... I
haven't got rid of it because it will 'come in handy at some stage'
for a
greenhouse base or whatever.

A man after my own heart! I pick up all real old fashioned solid
bricks I see when I go to the tip as I know how useful they are for
garden edges or paths or whatever. I've probably managed to pick up
about a pallet load over the years and that has saved me about $800
which is the cost to have a pallet of new ones "sold core" delivered
here.

Our tip is rather an unusual one as tip scavenging isn't "allowed",
but the locals all put in "orders" with the tip attendant to look out
for particular items which he'll save and put off to one side and he
just turns a blind eye turned when locals are scavenging. I've even
managed to find a wonderful antique arm chair there which looks superb
now it's been reupholstered and had it's lags repolished.

The more I try to keep on top of the garden, the harder it seems -
except
for the veg. patch that is! I have been so busy with that over
recent years
that I haven't had chance to put in a great deal in the way of
flower beds -
certainly not annuals. We don't like garish flowers either... ( I
really
hate petunias - but don't tell anyone).

Your secret is safe with me. I share a similar aversion. There was a
fashion here a few years ago for striped ones and they were
particularly revolting - chocolate brown ones with a cream stripe and
purple ones with a yellow stripe!!!!!! When I saw them in the nursery
in their punnets, I thought that no-one would possibly buy such filthy
things but then I noticed that they had started to appear in the
gardens of the village :-)) You can imagine my reaction.

Our big garden here is lots of trees, shrubs, roses and bigger
clumping things like Irises, Day lillies. Sedums, euphorbias etc whihc
of course only have a limited flowing season. My husband often says
that he wants "colour" to which I reply with some degree of
waspishness that green IS a colour.

I really do hope you manage to enjoy your gardens with all the work
it must
entail, and that it is not becoming too much of a struggle.

Luckily for me, the cancers I've had are such that I have just been
knocked for six whilst undergoing treatment or recovering from
surgery. And I've learned to be smarter rather than relying on
strength as I used to do. I bought a cheap tipping trolley that I
could roll rocks onto and then lever bakwards so I could work on
redesigning some of my bigger beds where the idiot garden "designer"
who originally "did" this garden had put in huge rocks sticking up
into the air like dragon's teeth.. It was a wise buy to compensate
for lack of strenth and lets me do what I wnat to do with limited need
to call on Himself.

Naturally I send all our best wishes.

As do I to you and your wife.

Again I will look on the bright side
and say that those of us with gardens must be the fortunate ones.

Yep. The glass is half full, not half empty.

One fails
to imagine being under the circumstances we face - and being unable
to
'escape' on a regular basis, for some well needed fresh air.

I guess that perhaps we share a common thing in that for both of us,
our gardens provide solace and a place in which to regather ourselves
in order to keep on going out there and doing what we have to do. But
I think most gardenersshare that.

Take care,

And you too.

Fran (aka Farm1)