Saturday 13 June 2009

The Good Life

Right, you are tasked with looking after the burgeoning crop of your friends who are increasingly modelling themselves on Tom and Barbara Good. You are a slightly bedraggled, mum of two desperately trying to keep the house tidy and cook the dinner, yet alone do any gardening:
Keys- Check
Toddler- Check
Baby- Check
Ability to garden- Un-check

Trust is a splendid thing, ignorance is another. I can't help thinking Garden Mum and Dad experienced my haphazard approach to gardening last year. When I planted a mixture of courgettes and marrows in the same pots and forgot to mark them. Foolishly trusting in the skills of plant identification I obtained whilst working in the herbarium of the Natural History Museum London, I naively thought I'd be able to tell which was which when they grew. Think again, marrow fritters and courgette casserole anyone?

When we went on our summer holiday, I left Garden Mum and Dad to tend my crop, they were as confused as me. But, I like to think that the experience left a tiny impression and contributed to their desire to become self sufficient on the vegetable front. I'm quite glad they didn't decide to become fully self sufficient or I would have worried about leaving the (now) deceased bunnies in their care.

So, a year on, a couple of babies later and several raised beds, I find myself with the epic task of watering the vegetables and fruit (see, I know that a tomato is a fruit!). First, to wrangle the hosepipe; 'HUBBY!' As he has more practise at wrangling hoses than me (lol), its job done in a few seconds. Then, to water everything, this is time consuming but very satisfying as I'm quite mean and I can't stand the mains water wastage in our house, collecting the washing up water etc. It's great being so decadent around someone else's house! 'Stop!, No!' So, Toddler boy did get a little bit wet, but he didn't complain. In fact, he actually begged to have Garden Girl's little red watering can filled up several times just so he could help out as well.

RESULT! Nothing dead yet, no strawberries consumed and I feel ever so virtuous as my good deed for the day has been done.

1 comment:

  1. It's nerve wracking looking after someone elses plants that they've been nurturing for so long, isn't it?
    I'm sure they'll come home and be pleasantly surprised at how everything's doing.

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