Two events this morning brought home to me how an interest in gardening can
be carried on through the generations.
I popped in to see my mum (78), she said she thought she wouldn't plant any
runner beans next year cos she has more than she can eat. Not surprising
when she still plants about 50+ plants, because thats how many she needed
when all 7 kids were at home. She has a very large garden, and my youngest
brother mows the lawn, but other than that she grows strawberries, potatoes,
tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, cabbage, curly kale, all enough to give away
to anyone when they visit. (We never like to refuse even if our own fridges
are full of veg from our own plants, she enjoys the giving as much as the
growing.)
Thats apart from the flower garden where she loves bright bedding plants and
sweetpeas grown from seed, no easy maintainance shrubs for her. Every year
for the past 10 she's said she is too old to do the garden, but in spring
she gets ichy fingers (I know the feeling) and starts planting. I'm sure the
exercise is good for her, and keeps her interested. She accuses me of
chopping up every plant I buy, but she never refuses a cutting, and if I
give her something, she'll probably come back with a plant for me. She's
really excited that the grape vine I gave her a few years ago has several
bunches of grapes on, and I have to go and check it's OK every time I visit
(about 3 times a week!)
Later on, my daughter who is 11, announced she wanted to go to the garden
centre to look around. It was her birthday last week, so she had some money
to spend. Once we got there she was excited to see the seeds reduced to half
price. We looked at the ready grown plants, but with an eye to a bargain she
eventually decided on some pansy and sweet pea seeds. She planted some of
the pansies as soon as we got home, but she's waiting until the autumn for
the sweet peas. She said she loves plants, wouldn't the world be dreary
without them!
I hope she passes that thought on to any children she has.

Ann

Ann, that was nice to read. I'm hoping that Rowan follows in our footsteps:
my family side - the gardeners, his dad's side - the botanists. This
weekend there's a 'gathering' - me, our son, two of my sisters, my mum, and
my grandma. Come rain or shine there'll be a tour around the garden and lots
of info swapped. I'm looking forward to it :-)

I'm wondering whether a child's wheelbarrow could double up as a 'walker' in
a few months time?

--Alison
Mum to Rowan (6 weeks old)

"Ann" wrote in message
...
Two events this morning brought home to me how an interest in gardening
can
be carried on through the generations.
I popped in to see my mum (78), she said she thought she wouldn't plant
any
runner beans next year cos she has more than she can eat. Not surprising
when she still plants about 50+ plants, because thats how many she needed
when all 7 kids were at home. She has a very large garden, and my youngest
brother mows the lawn, but other than that she grows strawberries,
potatoes,
tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, cabbage, curly kale, all enough to give away
to anyone when they visit. (We never like to refuse even if our own
fridges
are full of veg from our own plants, she enjoys the giving as much as the
growing.)
Thats apart from the flower garden where she loves bright bedding plants
and
sweetpeas grown from seed, no easy maintainance shrubs for her. Every year
for the past 10 she's said she is too old to do the garden, but in spring
she gets ichy fingers (I know the feeling) and starts planting. I'm sure
the
exercise is good for her, and keeps her interested. She accuses me of
chopping up every plant I buy, but she never refuses a cutting, and if I
give her something, she'll probably come back with a plant for me. She's
really excited that the grape vine I gave her a few years ago has several
bunches of grapes on, and I have to go and check it's OK every time I
visit
(about 3 times a week!)
Later on, my daughter who is 11, announced she wanted to go to the garden
centre to look around. It was her birthday last week, so she had some
money
to spend. Once we got there she was excited to see the seeds reduced to
half
price. We looked at the ready grown plants, but with an eye to a bargain
she
eventually decided on some pansy and sweet pea seeds. She planted some of
the pansies as soon as we got home, but she's waiting until the autumn for
the sweet peas. She said she loves plants, wouldn't the world be dreary
without them!
I hope she passes that thought on to any children she has.

Ann

The message
from "Alison" o.uk
contains these words:


I'm wondering whether a child's wheelbarrow could double up as a 'walker' in
a few months time?

No, but a strong navvy wheelbarrow would be cheaper and more useful
than a pushchair imho;-) plenty of room for a young baby to lie down
facing his mum, and the shopping will fit in too. A baby bath can become
a paddling pool then a pond; and if you use cotton nappies, the bucket
with a lid will be useful later in the kitchen for compost. Incidentally
Chris'n Helen French who post here have a websiteful of very detailed
nappy research that you might find useful.

Janet.

Only hope she is able to afford a house with a garden then cos everwhere I
look lately the builders are pulling down houses with large gardens and
putting 20 in its place .......a window box is about all the space they will
get
"Ann" wrote in message
...
Two events this morning brought home to me how an interest in gardening
can
be carried on through the generations.
I popped in to see my mum (78), she said she thought she wouldn't plant
any
runner beans next year cos she has more than she can eat. Not surprising
when she still plants about 50+ plants, because thats how many she needed
when all 7 kids were at home. She has a very large garden, and my youngest
brother mows the lawn, but other than that she grows strawberries,
potatoes,
tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, cabbage, curly kale, all enough to give away
to anyone when they visit. (We never like to refuse even if our own
fridges
are full of veg from our own plants, she enjoys the giving as much as the
growing.)
Thats apart from the flower garden where she loves bright bedding plants
and
sweetpeas grown from seed, no easy maintainance shrubs for her. Every year
for the past 10 she's said she is too old to do the garden, but in spring
she gets ichy fingers (I know the feeling) and starts planting. I'm sure
the
exercise is good for her, and keeps her interested. She accuses me of
chopping up every plant I buy, but she never refuses a cutting, and if I
give her something, she'll probably come back with a plant for me. She's
really excited that the grape vine I gave her a few years ago has several
bunches of grapes on, and I have to go and check it's OK every time I
visit
(about 3 times a week!)
Later on, my daughter who is 11, announced she wanted to go to the garden
centre to look around. It was her birthday last week, so she had some
money
to spend. Once we got there she was excited to see the seeds reduced to ha
lf
price. We looked at the ready grown plants, but with an eye to a bargain
she
eventually decided on some pansy and sweet pea seeds. She planted some of
the pansies as soon as we got home, but she's waiting until the autumn for
the sweet peas. She said she loves plants, wouldn't the world be dreary
without them!
I hope she passes that thought on to any children she has.

Ann

In article ,
says...
The message
from "Alison" o.uk
contains these words:


I'm wondering whether a child's wheelbarrow could double up as a 'walker' in
a few months time?

No, but a strong navvy wheelbarrow would be cheaper and more useful
than a pushchair imho;-) plenty of room for a young baby to lie down
facing his mum, and the shopping will fit in too. A baby bath can become
a paddling pool then a pond; and if you use cotton nappies, the bucket
with a lid will be useful later in the kitchen for compost. Incidentally
Chris'n Helen French who post here have a websiteful of very detailed
nappy research that you might find useful.

*g*. I'm *fairly* sure that Alison is up to speed on nappies, although
I'm sure she'll correct me now. We've both been on
uk.people.parenting.pregnancy for a while now and I follwed her lead up
with lots of excitement.

Warwick

"Warwick" wrote in message
news:MPG.198bcbe72457ba22989808@lateinos...

*g*. I'm *fairly* sure that Alison is up to speed on nappies, although
I'm sure she'll correct me now. We've both been on
uk.people.parenting.pregnancy for a while now and I follwed her lead up
with lots of excitement.

Warwick

:-) thanks for the compliment, Warwick. We *love* our cloth nappies and
now, having got the hang of folding muslins, I'm only sad that I didn't get
50/50 shaped and traditional terries (all shaped) cos the terry squares
would have made brilliant gardening cloths :-)

Janet - love the idea of the navy wheelbarrow.

--Alison

"bnd777" wrote in message
...
Only hope she is able to afford a house with a garden then cos everwhere I
look lately the builders are pulling down houses with large gardens and
putting 20 in its place .......a window box is about all the space they
will
get

Yes I know what you mean - another 12 acre idyll has been sold to a property
developer. The last site he got he squeezed in 7 exec houses where one once
was and has sold all of them for o/o 425K each. Personally I would feel
severely deprived to only have a postage stamp garden but often folk don't
have the choice thanks to these developers.

--Alison

The message
from "Alison" o.uk
contains these words:


Yes I know what you mean - another 12 acre idyll has been sold to a property
developer. The last site he got he squeezed in 7 exec houses where one once
was and has sold all of them for o/o 425K each. Personally I would feel
severely deprived to only have a postage stamp garden but often folk don't
have the choice thanks to these developers.

--Alison

We still get a bit of garden in the new houses up here but to be honest
they really are trying to squeeze every bit out of the land as thats the
most expensive bit of the whole building bit now.

Building plots around wisbech for anything of a reasonable size and your
talking 100k. Rediculas.

--
email farmer chris on
Please don`t use as it`s a spam haven.