Down on the Plot

 

My vegetable patch has been notably absent from this blog and indeed my life this summer. Before we vacated our home, I planted potatoes and onions and then left it. Forays back to the garden have been made only to harvest new potatoes and shallots as well as from the fruit trees. Sadly whilst the trees are doing us proud, mainly because of the lack of wasps this year, the harvest from the ground has so far proved disappointing. It demonstrates, I suppose, that my regular presence is indeed required to administer tender loving care in the form of a watering can and fertiliser, as needed.

That said, and however much I enjoy gardening, it has been a boon not to feel tied down in the servitude of peas and cabbages. So much so, that I have now even been devising plans for next years vegetable beds which might see two or three of them taken out of action. I have a feeling that displays of colourful blooms amongst the edible crops might be easier on the back, require less man hours to cultivate and free up time. Yes, making gardening a little less intensive could be heralding a move into gradual retirement on that front as well!

Of course, with a garden at the rental property too, we've doubled up on the shrubs to care for and lawns to cut, but being spared the digging and watering has provided an opportunity to experience what the future could hold if we go down the route of reduction or even of spreading gravel.

Eliminating some of the hard graft may feel like a reward for aching muscles but sometimes it's the simplest tasks that cause the most injury. Take last weekend when pruning an overgrown shrub resulted in a twig whipping back and into my eye. The pain was such that I instinctively curled up on the ground, willing the throbbing to cease and hoping there was no permanent damage to the eye. It did (eventually) and there wasn't (I hope); only some dust that took a long time to wash out. 

It was, however, a salutary lesson, if I needed one, that home and garden are potentially dangerous settings when appropriate precautions are not taken; how easy it would have been just to have worn sunglasses to afford protection.  So perhaps to decrease the opportunities for further harm to the person, it's time to cut back (no pun intended) on health and safety grounds too.