Friday, December 28, 2018

Quote du jour/Monty Don, and gardening plans for 2019



In any garden, change is the only constant.
Monty Don on
Gardeners' World








Recently I wrote this in a book post.
 Nigel
My family and other dogs
by Monty Don
nonfiction 2016
print
finished 7/1/18
English writer/English setting

This is the year that Monty Don has come into our lives. Britbox began offering the English television program Gardeners' World. It is one of the best shows I've ever seen. Monty Don is the warm, calm, reassuring, enthusiastic, humble host. I bought two of his books, follow him on Instagram, and am also watching some other shows he has done via Netflix. Wonderful how we can get these programs over here now! Nigel is his aging Golden Retriever. He and a younger Golden, Nell are the real stars of Gardeners' World. Don writes about the other dogs in his life, telling a bit about his own life in the bargain. Really wonderful. I loved it.

Honestly, this man has changed my life just by showing up every week on my television. He has encouraged me to get back into serious gardening.

In 2009 we made the decision to go with raised beds. The first post about them is here. They were fine for a while, but the wood began to rot, it wasn't easy to mow right up to them so that involved the extra work of using the big trimmer along each side, which wasn't easy because it might hit the wood.

Eventually we removed them, and put flowers in the areas where the raised beds were. I think we went a year without growing vegetables. And then I wrote about the new idea of a terrific garden right beside the patio/entranceway.

It has worked well, but was very crowded. Last year it felt like outdoor clutter with stuff all over the place. In the fall we made a lot of changes. We decided the patio garden would be just flowers, not a combination of flowers and vegetables. We transplanted iris, peonies, daylilies, aquilegia, and others into that garden. We also planted daffodils across the road - all varieties that we heard about from Monty; Bath's Flame, Ice Follies, and Thalia - 30 in all. This whole area is now full of daffs.



Early in the year we had taken up the flowers that were in the former raised beds on the lawn and put in 6 raspberry plants - those little sticks that you see.


And then a couple weeks ago, I found myself saying to Tom that I wanted what I called a "real" vegetable garden, a big garden with rows. I want to grow tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, leeks, onions, peas, corn, potatoes, basil, parsley, cabbage, garlic. It will not be off the kitchen, where the raspberries are and which is the fenced in yard for Lucy. Instead it is going to go just beyond the daffodils, in that open area past the clothesline.


Yes, it will be work, but it is good work. I need exercise. Walking just doesn't happen every day no matter my good intentions. And fresh vegetables at the Co-op or at farmers' markets are not cheap. The plan is to have the rows between vegetables wide enough that the Mantis can till there, and remove weeds, so the only weeding I'll have to do is between plants. 

I think a lot about what I call "subtraction". I read so much about people my age scaling down, going smaller, getting rid of things. Well, I don't want to do that. I want to add; add a vegetable garden, add a second or third dog in a few years. We don't have the money to travel, but we are lucky, lucky to have family close by. We are lucky to have a home and animals. We are lucky to so far be healthy except for this knee of mine. PD James has a book that she wrote when she was 77 (which I plan to read when I turn that age), called Time to Be in Earnest. Well, the title is what I want to do now. If not now, then when? I want my grandchildren to see us as vigorous vegetable growers. I've always thought the best death was Marlon Brando as the Godfather dying in his tomato patch. Though I wouldn't want the grandchildren seeing it, as happened in the movie!

Gardeners' World and Monty Don have changed me and influenced me. I am quite positive that show is why I have this new plan. This season Frances Tophill


shared an allotment with a young fellow, and their enthusiasm for fresh, right out of the garden food made me miss what was always such a part of me. I'll be forever grateful that Britbox brought this program to the US. 

23 comments:

  1. I do like Monty Don I had watched Big Ideas Small Space I think that was on Netflix. Maybe I should subscribe to Brit Box. He does make you want to get out and at it. He reminds me of an old friend in England Justin, who went to Aberdeen University and studied horticulture and does estate gardening. He's tall and speaks like that.

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    1. I think you can go to the site and see what they have to offer. For me, just GW would make it worth it, but there was a terrific nature show called Springwatch. A completely innovative idea called All Aboard! where a canal boat makes its way down a river. No talking. It is like you are on board. I am just on series 3 of the Small Spaces show on Netflix. Do you have Acorn? It has a lot of British, shows including some good ones from New Zealand and Australia. Such a lucky time for British tv fans!

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  2. I will definitely seek out this program! Thanks so much for writing about it. Very interesting.

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    1. Do you have Britbox? There are some episodes of GW on youtube, but not this year's, I don't think.

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    2. Thanks, Nan!
      We know about Britbox, but don't have it. This is partly because we have PBS Passport. But we will think about it. Always glad to know what we're missing----darn it!
      Best wishes!

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  3. I have always thought of you as a gardener and over the years, have loved reading your posts about your gardens, both flower and vegetable. I think you are back to a place in your life when you have the time to get outside and dig and plant and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Until recently, you've been busy watching HN, but now that she's in school, you have more time during the day. I look forward to reading more about this return to your beloved gardens.

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    1. Thank you, Les. You're right about the time. I just didn't get into all that as well, but the past years have been extraordinarily packed - both in time and emotion. Not just Hazel, but with the boys too. It is bittersweet now. Yes, we have more time and also, yes, we miss them terribly. It seems those baby and toddler years literally flew by. Now we are in a new stage. We are getting a bedroom together for them so they can sleep over when they are a bit older.

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  4. Monty Don is a great character. I have watched every show that he has done that is on youtube. They used to have the current shows on then the BBC found out they were on youtube and stopped them. That made me very sad as I anxiously watched each new show. Maybe I can subscribe to Britbox. I have never heard of this. Monty's show does encourage you to love the land. Your Grands will find the new veg garden a wonderful place. I still remember my Grandparent's Garden. It was a thing of beauty and bounty. Such great memories.

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    1. It is $7/month, I think. So worth it, to me. That makes me so happy that you remember your grandparents' garden. That alone makes this big garden a great idea!

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  5. I really miss Monty Don and Gardener's World when it goes in the late autumn. It leaves a real gap and I can't wait for it to start up again. I don't plan to do 'subtraction' either, Nan! (Not heard the term before.) We plan to stay in our big house with our biggish garden for as long as we can. After all how can I make my soup if we don't grow our tomatos, our squash, our leeks, and so on. At the moment we have kale, sprouts and leeks still growing in the garden and they were lovely on Christmas Day. I've joined Instagram and must get my grand-daughter to teach me how to use it properly before she's goes back to uni.

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    1. Cath, do you follow him on Instagram? (did I already ask you that?!) It is pure delight. He posts pictures of the dogs and sunrises and the land. I think I made up the usage of "subtraction" haha. I will try to find you and follow!

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  6. This is so inspiring, Nan! I wish you great success with your new plans. I try to grow veggies on my deck, but it doesn't work too well. Growing herbs there is much more satisfying because I love just going out the door and picking them for cooking. I really must get Britbox. I've been trying to sign up twice and something about the process irritates me and I don't do it. I'll try again. I do have Acorn.

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    1. Yes, sometimes those things can be irritating but worth it at the end. Lots of things aren't user friendly, or else they expect you to know something that you don't. Lovely about picking herbs. Which ones do you grow? I'd love to talk to you more about what you watch and what I've loved on Acorn.

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  7. I grow sage, a few thymes, rosemary, chives, parsley, rue which I use for nothing but smelling it but it triggers a sort of childhood memory, winter savory which makes a lovely flavoring for broth, and some others which I can't recall because I have a terrible cold just now and am a bit groggy. Oh, a few lavenders, a mint we love that we found wild by our dock at Chautauqua, lemon balm, farther out in the garden I have Linden and juniper whose berries I use when cooking sauerkraut and roses and I can't think any more....I used to have far more herbs than I do now.

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  8. Just remembered basil which I buy every year and a wild oregano in the yard...

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  9. I am SO impressed. Are they all in pots or are some in a garden? I've never had a bit of luck with pots.

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    1. Most are in window boxes on the railing of the deck...Basil is in a big pot as is Rosemary. I'm zone 5 here, though bits of the yard are zone 6. You may be colder......
      I also have a ginkgo tree and a sassafras which I don't use anymore. Lily of the Valley is an herb though basically toxic. I do have sweet woodruff which I love. The dried leaves have a beautiful scent. Probably more things I cannot recall just now. I used to be a garden writer and belonged to an herb society for many years. Oh, I have European sweet cecily which has lovely anise leaves and seeds.

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    2. I chuckled when I read "may be colder." Oh yeah! Zone 3! You were a garden writer!! Online? A magazine? Could I still find your writings? Thanks for telling me about what you grow.

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  10. I'm very impressed with your plans, Nan. And I agree with Les. Your life has been in one phase with the last few years and now that your grands are growing older, it will be in another phase. It is ever thus, right? I had one grandfather who was an avid gardener into his early 80's. He grew the most beautiful roses and also veggies. They also had fruit trees - this in the Panhandle of Texas. You go for it!

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    1. Thank you for telling me about your grandfather! Inspirational! It is a different phase, that's for sure.

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  11. The property where we are building our new home has better quality soil and a better exposure for gardening. I'm not yet certain how I want to do this. Hours on my hands and knees definitely give me age-related issues. [My husband appropriated the Garden Way 'kneeler' for a number of tasks as it wasn't working as well for me as I hoped.]
    I've wanted raised beds, but not sure they are the answer. The will to keep gardening in some fashion is very much alive.

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    1. You know that I have always marveled at how much you do!! I've never been a hands and knees gardener. I am the one who bends over at the waist. Someday I'll prob stay that way. haha. Tom uses the seat part of the kneeler. I've also seen taller, cart like things. I'll see if I can find it. Here's one: https://www.gardeners.com/buy/deluxe-tractor-garden-scoot/40-131.html#start=1 and this looks softer than the kneeler. https://www.gardeners.com/buy/comfort-kneeling-pad-2-inch/8594325.html#start=5

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  12. I loved his book Nigel. I have gardened for 50 years and I never heard of him. I am so enjoying his youtube presentations. Thanks for your blog. I don't comment very often but come here as often as I can. Thank you

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