UK 2012 ISSUE 21

Water Butts

Did you really think I had finished with all things garden and gardening.  There is still the outstanding issue of allotments and garden centres.  More than that I have more pretty pictures of flowers and plants to share.  Doing this blog actually forces me to take a look at the images I have captured and decide what is worth keeping and what requires a judicious trip to the trash.  Even those images considered "keepers" require at minimum, cropping and perhaps a little adjustment of light and shadow.  Unfortunately, if I really like an image, I can end up spending way to much time in photoshop just messing around with different treatments.  Generally speaking (for the purists among you) the pictures I have been sharing have not been too extensively "doctored".  

Back to England and their overwhelming preoccupation with growing things.  I imagine I have already touched on the question of allotments, which are really nothing more than community gardens with a long history.  Back even to Saxon times there has been a history of land being held in common for the production of food stuffs.  At various times over this 1000 year period the common land has been confiscated or seized and incorporated into the holdings of nobles, the crown or even the church.  The very first mention of an allotment is in Elizabethan England when an allotment of land was attached to tenant cottages for the growing of food and keeping of animals.  If you weren't a "tenant" guess you had a problem since common land for the use of the poor was increasingly being enclosed.  

Peek a boo pumpkin

Life went on, the ability to keep your own plot rose and fell as the the towns became larger and the agrarian lifestyle gave way to the Industrial Revolution.  In 1887, the Victorians, who were noteworthy for their interest in doing something to change the conditions of the poor city dwellers, albeit not generally very successfully, enacted the Cottage Gardens and Compensation for Crops Act.  The intent was to compel the local authorities to provide allotments for the production of food it there was a demand for them .  Naturally enough this was not terribly successful,. What would  you rather see, a rag tag lot of poor folk struggling to grow a garden or a new tastefully designed building.  Perhaps this was among the first acts of NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard).  And let's be honest, were they more interested in providing land to grow crops or was it the Victorian perspective that idle hands are the devils workshop.  If you are busy tending turnips and brussel sprouts perhaps you would be saved from the evils of drink, while providing healthful and nourishing food for your family.

During both the First and Second World Wars the British coast was blockaded and food shortages were the norm.  Rationing, which lasted until 1954 (ask Mick, he though a banana or an orange was something truly exotic) was a real and ongoing condition.  The Victory Garden whether it was on your land or a communal allotment supplied significant food allowing the farmers to be a part of the war effort.   And so it is, the allotment exists still in the year 2012.  

Wheelbarrow in the garden

Groby, which probably has no more than 5000 people, has two sets of allotments which must encompass 10 square blocks in total, perhaps even more.  Allotments are so popular there are waiting lists to get a space, but once you get it, it is yours pretty much until you choose to give it up.  People put up structures for storing garden implements and as a means to capture water in there water butts (see left) for gardening purposes.  I presume there is a permanent standpipe for water but to be honest I'm not sure and in at least one instance I have seen someone using a watering can to water their plants.    The allocation is not a paltry little square of land but a fairly substantial plot of probably 10 to 15 feet wide by 40 or 50 feet long.

What do they grow, you would be amazed.  Roger, with whom we spoke fairly regularly, had potatoes, onions, leeks, greens, scarlet runner beans, strawberries, brussel sprouts, rhubarb, cabbage (multiple kinds) and lord only knows what else.  One of the corners where the path went through the gardens  had an

Poppy bud

 enormous plot of gooseberries, a true English delicacy.  Mick always refers to them as hairy grapes, I on the other hand refer to them as yuck.  There were a couple of old apple trees which had a bumper crop of apples, there were rows and rows of raspberries, all well beyond my reach over the fence and blackberries grew on the hedges.  The two most common crops had to be potatoes and runner beans. Lots of people interspersed flowers with their veggies,  Generally speaking the gardens were well tended and prolific, and if you look, no matter where you are, outside of the major cities, you will find allotments.  

Looks like an artichoke(?)

Over here we have the County Fair, or better still the State Fair as a place to show off your hard work and gardening/crafting/cooking expertise.  In Groby they have the Harvest Festival sponsored by the local church.  Looks pretty much the same, bouquets of roses and dahlias, plates of tomatoes (grown in the greenhouse of course), examples of needlepoint, loaves of banana bread, you get the picture.  But here's the twist, It all gets capped off with a community dinner . . . To be honest, it has been several years since I have had the pleasure of attending one of these events but I imagine little has changed.    The church hall is festooned with crepe paper and round tables seating eight people fill the space.  Butcher paper covers the table and there is a bouquet of flowers in a plastic tumbler  in the centre.  An odd assortment of cutlery, a plastic water glass, heavy white pottery plates and tissue paper thin serviettes (napkins) complete the place setting.  The crowd files in and I am probably the youngest person there apart from Mick.  You odd get snatches of conversation, "ooh lovey, did you see Violet's blue ribbon floral arrangement" . . .  "Beryl really did well with her lemon curd"  . . .  "why didn't Charles enter the knot tying competition" and of course the ongoing litany of who has what disease, or has had what procedure.  Just generally way more than you could ever wish to know about your neighbours health.  God save me from being one of the old people who dwells on there illnesses and inadequacies, life has to be oh so much more exciting that the latest advances in bypass surgery.  

Hostas perhaps

Enough now of gardens and gardening, what about those garden centres.  You need some mulch or compost or a few new landscape plants, a quick trip to Home Depot or your local big box should take care of things.  If you are really looking for a specimen plant or something a little out of the ordinary you might even make the trip to your local nursery.  In an around Groby I can't think of a single shop, big box or small local, that sells anything gardening.  You MUST go to the Garden Centre.  Actually, I guess I do exaggerate a little, there were a couple of small nurseries, probably the size a the garden section in your average Home Depot in the area.  But if you really needed a gardening trip you made the pilgrimage to one of the Garden Centres.  

The one with which I am most familiar was on the way to Market Bosworth, several miles from nowhere and down a country lane.  The indoor portion was the size of a Home Depot store.  Over and above the indoor there were rows and rows of greenhouses, an enormous outdoor section under a mesh like cover, (too keep the sun out?) and a whole big display of garden sheds. 

Pretty Pink Flower

The garden sheds were totally fascinating.  I am accustomed to those brown Rubbermaid plastic boxes  with doors that look a bit like your Mother's Tupperware on super steroids.  We even own metal 4x6 box with a corrugated roof and sliding door down in Redwood City for storing tools and plant pots.  But my oh my something so plebeian as a Rubbermaid box will never do.  I reckon some of the ones I saw on display were big enough to live in.  Not only were they sizable but they were "architectural".  Windows and doors, dormers and flower boxes, porches for sitting, attached boot scrapers for your muddy boots, built in cabinets and hooks for hanging your wet weather gear, special doodads for hanging your various tools; it was all there.  

Trellis and Flowers

Moving indoors . . . there was a whole "room" with gardening gloves.  Did you realise there are special gauntlets for pruning roses?  Need to grub around in the mud, there was a nice selection of totally waterproof, yet flexible gloves that looked a little like what you might put on when washing dishes.  Need something more durable, how about a nice pair of leather work gloves, is style your thing  then try "an uncommon blend of elegance and practicality . . . soft brown suede with colourful cuffs".  

This place was a shopping centre all by itself.  Plant pots, compost, gardening clothes . . .  you must have a sun hat ( to go with your assorted gardening gloves).  God forbid you tie up the four corners of your hankie a la Monty Python.  There was rope and twine and scissor and tools, rubber boots stylin' and not so stylin', potted plants, bare root plants, seeds and tubers, plants and liners and paraphernalia for water gardens  and, and, and, it just goes on and on.  Now, just in case you become a little over awed and/or exhausted with your shopping experience you may need to take a tea break.  Wonder of wonders, what was right there on the premises but a rather sizable cafeteria offering everything from tea and scones to hot cooked midday meals.  

Carolyn's Beans

Never say die, there was more still.  Apart from the a mundane assortment of lawn mowers, there were riding mowers, rototillers and sundry other motorised gardening apparatus   I really kinda expected to see a John Deere tractor.  You also mustn't forget the outdoor furniture store.  It would give a small indoor furniture store a run for it's money.  Aside from the typical tables and chairs, swings and loungers there was an amazing display of BBQs and BBQ equipment.  When we lived in Birmingham a BBQ was unheard of, in fact I don't suppose the English would have considered cooking outdoors as something desirable.  Even in to the 90's when London friends, who had previously lived in the states, built a brick BBQ in their yard they were the talk of the neighbourhood.  Now you can find Weber kettles, gas grills, small portable grills for picnicking, and an assortment of outdoor kitchens.  Perhaps this climate change thing is for real, because its seems that the Brits have taken to outdoor entertaining in a big way.  

 A small sweet shop where I was able to purchase Humbugs and a kitchen supply store completed the selection.  

So here it is ladies and gentlemen.  I cannot be bothered to proof this any further so you get it bad punctuation and all.  Did allow spell check to have a go and got all my American spelling corrected . . . motorized with an "s"?  You may have to wait for another edition, I believe I have run out of things English to share, but there is always Ashland.  Thanks for coming along for the ride and I hope to hear from all of you soon.   It would be nice to  know who has been reading my blog, I can tell how many hits I get but not from whence they come.  So if you think of it drop me a line (gaylef8@gmail.com) and let me know you have been following my tales of all things English.  

Daisy

Sunflower

Coos aka Cows

ttfn (ta ta for now) and all my love     Gayle