Well, it is in England, in the country, and it is a garden, but it is more of a wild life sanctuary at the moment, or at least it has been. My niece's brother-in-law has been clearing it a bit so it is beginning to look a bit more like a garden with flower beds rather than a trial to see which weed is more invasive than the next!
I can't dig any more, but I did plant out some potatoes today. I got one of those potato growing bags a few weeks ago and I thought I ought to get on with it. I now have a bag out in the garden with some seed pots in and it will be interesting to see how they grow. Never tried this technique before, though I have grown tomatoes and peppers in grow bags before. Since I had my hysterectomy in 2002 and my health got steadily worse the garden has been somewhat abandoned. It used to be rather pretty and because it is small it was manageable. About three years ago I cleared out the small bed which is under the dining room window. It is only about 8ft by 1.5ft but I could hardly move for a couple of days and had to crawl over to the conservatory to use the step to get up! I planted out some herbs there, which I really should make more use of.
Fresh food, straight from the garden - yum. I remember when I was living in Utah for a few months over thirty years ago picking peaches and eating them still warmed by the sun. It is not a crop that you can grow in England without a hot house, or a very sheltered south facing wall, but I remember the wonderful flavour. So much of our food is harvested before it is ripe, especially warm climate fruits which have to be transported to the UK. With things like melons you can buy them and then have to wait weeks for them to ripen, by which time you have given up looking at them and they have almost instantly started to go rotten. I love supermarket's idea of 'ready-to-eat' fruit that you could use as hand grenades!
Food is such an important part of my approach to living with metastatic breast cancer, but it is something that I have very much neglected for the last year or so. I get an organic vegetable box delivered every week, but I end up throwing some of it away because I don't get round to using it. I used to take a big raw salad to work most days made with seeds, dried fruits, nuts and loads of veg, but now I don't start work until 2pm I don't do this. I must get back in the habit of eating better because I feel that it is really starting to impact on my health. I am, however, starting to feel that as I get more control over the state of my house and garden that I will be able to take back some control over my relationship with food. It is so important, but sometimes I have to admit that I feel a lack of motivation to still be alive ... but there must be a reason. ?
No comments:
Post a Comment