Saturday 23 June 2007

A nasty case of green fingers

I’m feeling just a bit guilty. It’s the village summer vegetable show today and the ‘Hidden Gardens’ open day on Sunday and I’m not going to either. I’m off to an old friend’s big birthday bash today and it’s best that, for once, I boycott the Hidden Gardens. They only make me dissatisfied with my small plot of earth, though most of the posh heritage gardens, the ones that make me really jealous, are firmly closed this year. They’re probably fed up with us humble cottage dwellers staring maliciously at their manicured lawns and perfect rose arbours. I can be a spiteful gardener at times. I would love a few rolling acres but realistically my little garden and half an allotment are about all I have time to manage. That and the fact that I haven’t got about a million and a half quid to spare.

I knew someone, a previous work colleague and a waspish sort of chappie, who would visit gardens with a pocket full of seeds specially saved for the purpose of scattering when he felt garden envy coming on. He brought a whole new meaning to green fingered. I guess it makes a change from visitors pinching plants. Sadly he never felt the need to scatter those secret little seeds in my garden.

As for the show. I really meant to enter some peas and other bits and pieces. I grew some specially. They were looking good too, but they were even lovelier in the vegetable lasagne we had last night for supper. It was either that or walk up the village to the greengrocers and, as I may have said before, I can be quite lazy at times.

(There was actually a famous ‘lady’ gardener, Miss Wilmot, who would scatter white Eryngium seeds in all the gardens she visited, the resulting plants came to be known as Miss Wilmot’s Ghost. I am not sure if I’ve got that completely right. Does anyone know the whole story?)

6 comments:

snailbeachshepherdess said...

Would love to know the story of Miss Wilmott...sounds like our gardening prowess is rather similar!

countrymousie said...

Yes you are right - she used to sprinkle eryngium seed in gardens of friends when she visited and they were her calling card. They would then pop up the next year.
She was also pale and prickly!

Anonymous said...

I just have a few pots and tubs decorating the yard which have now been destroyed by our over exciteable puppy. The garden we have is just lawn. Not green fingered at all, although I would love to have a beautiful garden. Miss Wilmott sounds wonderful, I wonder if she's ever visited me..

Un Peu Loufoque said...

Spot on with the ghost seeds! I remember the story from gardeners world or some such. When I was a student one year after the finals in dead of night someone planted an awful lot of bulbs in the cloister garden and next spring a very rude word came up spelt out in crocuses in the lawn !

Ah those were the days!!

Frances said...

Hello from New York, and thanks so much for your comments.

It is funny, but my getting into the retail world is a fairly recent development. Previously I've had many career stops (computer programmer, museum archivist, and for many decades...a legal assistant specializing in municipal finance.)

Following that last bit, I did actually take a four-year, self-funded, break during which I painted and drew and read and visited folks and walked all over town and did whatever pleased me, every day.

It was after the big stock market correction that it seemed like a good idea to go back to work. The idea of having something to do with fashion (another interest all along) seemed interesting. I started five years ago, and have had lots of promotions. Now I don't think I will ever again be able to afford tostop work altogether.

So glad that I did have the four glorious years!

xo

Pondside said...

I think I must have left a comment on this when it was posted on the CCW site!
In answer to your question - Ikea was definitly the more difficult!!! I work with adults, as you've surmised, and things have become pretty horrible by the time I see them. I still find the work incredibly rewarding as some people are able to turn their lives around.