As a family, we're having a week of gardening: horticultural heaven for me (being outdoors in the Veg Patch), horticultural hell for my son who is doing pre-GCSE work experience with the Gardening Guru. There was a suggestion that he'd go to the Ecology Centre (at a nature reserve in Islington) and I fondly imagined that he'd learn about bio-diversity, planting schemes, local wildlife, sustainability and environmental engineering. They even have a wind turbine there! and an education centre! Sounds great, huh? The truth is somewhat different… he's been digging holes and potting on plants in a public park for five days now. For free. In the heat. Breathing the traffic fumes of the Holloway Road. He tells me he's never doing gardening ever again. Which is a shame because it was the one thing that we did together, quite companionably. (Seeing as I don't 'do' Xbox or football.)
My week, on the other hand, has been delightful. Out in the sunshine, digging out ivy roots, preparing raised beds for planting, organising my seeds and what should go where, painting plant markers and sitting outdoors to eat my lunch. (Oh, and being passed bars of chocolate by the very lovely Myra to keep me going! Myra and her husband Fred overlook the Veg Patch from their balcony and have lived here in York Rise for many decades.)
And the cherry on the top of my Cupcake of Life? Rather excitingly, I've been sent three lovely gardening books to review by Green Books, a publishing company in Devon, more of which later.
Your son's week sounds like hard labour - with fumes! Perhaps he'll appreciate your style of gardening and allotmenting all the more. I managed to fit in some evening gardening after work last week which has really inspired me to keep on top of things. Look forward to reading the reviews.
ReplyDeleteWhat a shame about your son's work experience. My hubby often has kids come to his workplace for work experience, and he tries to give them interesting and varied tasks to complete, as well as teaching them new things and giving them new experiences, that's what work experience is all about. I think I like the sound of your week better, especially the chocolate part. I look forward to reading your book reviews.
ReplyDeleteI like the look of that How To Store Your Garden Produce book, it would be interesting to hear what you think of it!!
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