Thursday 8 May 2008

THE HOME GARDENING CLUB.

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The Home Gardening Club.

After the war, when life could only get better. Everyone was
encouraged to garden at home and grow their own food.
Council houses were built with large gardens and at least
'one' fruit tree to get people started.
A sort of 'Home gardening club' really.

I mentioned in one of my first posts that my dad was a gardener/
handyman. Well, gardening really WAS his forte`. His fingers
were so green they almost lit up in the dark. Our back garden at
home was filled to overflowing with every traditional vegetable
known to man, with pride of place being given to the runner beans,
sprouts and cabbage. The potato's which took up about a third
of the garden were a 'given' anyway, and we had two apple trees
that produced bumper crops of the tastiest apples imaginable.

Having said that, in the early days, we had an orchard almost next
door, (before development became the 'buzz-word') and we kids
would go scrumping there to get the 'cookers', plums, cherries,
damsons, gooseberries, etc, etc, etc. So basically we were
virtually self-sufficient.

You don't really see it now, what with the 'Nanny-State' protecting
us all from ourselves as they like to. But in the 50's & 60's it wasn't
at all unusual for people to leave boxes of surplus vegetables & fruit
on the path outside their house for any passers-by to take if they
needed it. Now that really WAS a 'Home Gardening Club', where
the whole village shared in each others good fortune. Those who
weren't quite as greenfingered could still benefit from those who
were. The home and garden were one and we all benefitted.

Another benefit of the home gardening club was that the streets had
a 'sweetness' about them. Yes, the back gardens were full of every
kind of veg, but the front gardens were very proudly tended indeed.
Folk were so pleased to be alive. To be able to afford to actually
'live' a little now in their nice new council homes, that the front gardens
were proudly displayed with the strongest scent of 'English Country
Garden'. Lupins and Lavender being the most prolific as I remember.

That's not to say that the private houses weren't just as fragrant, they
were, which made life then seem so much better maybe.

These days, now that everyone has two cars or more. Those sweet-
smelling front gardens have been replaced with hard core, block-
paved, flood promotion areas for the cars to park. In most suburban
areas and villages alike, the car has become God and must be
protected and molly-coddled at all costs. The gardeners club is just
a distant memory, much like the bumble bee whose numbers are
drastically declining lately. Without Bees and the like, we have no
flowers, fruit or veg. What will we eat?? Are we witnessing the end??

It's OK Peep's, we've still got our cars which we can keep at the front
of our house, as near as we possibly can. We can just look out of the
window now and worship it anytime we feel low or in doubt about our
own mortality.

(Cars 1....Bees 0) (Block-pavers 1.....Gardening club 0)
(Multi-nationals 1.....We, the public......0) Who's winning?

Answers below in the 'comments' section if you please.

Catch you later,

Pete.

To those of you who arrived here after doing a 'gardening' related search, and you're particularly interested in the mechanics of gardening, I've included this Youtube video I found recently.
The chap actually looks very much like my old Dad funnily enough. (Though my Dad would have been 102 now so it's not him) But please do click and enjoy.

(Don't forget to come back here though when you've finished. LOL)




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