Monday, February 15, 2010

Crocus And Air Miles


The Crocuses continue to grow on beautifully close to the house. The ones that are in the borders are not as developed. Maybe the soil near the house is warmer?
I love the stripey colours of yellow and brown on the Crocus flower buds.
I'm off work for a week now :)
Time to start packing boxes for the house, and potting plants up from the garden. The majority of the plants are sleeping so wont be too shocked at being transplanted.
The David Austin Roses (Lady Emma Hamilton and Gertrude Jekyll) need digging up and placed into large pots. They might spend this year in pots whilst the new garden is prepared. When we went to David Austins in Wolverhampton they had a large selection of potted Rose bushes growing beautifully. So Roses can be stored in pots and still flower okay..
We visited two Nursery's the other day. I bought a scoop for the bird food, and a beautiful white statue of a nude woman. It cost me thirty pounds, but is done in the classical style of ancient Greece or Rome. I need to have a name for the statue. She is stood by the backdoor window between the Rose Wisley, and the random bulbs in a pot.
It is a grey day today with rain, and its cold outside. I hope it drys off this week so I can get to the allotment.
I bought my seed potatoes for this year. A small bag of ten tubers for the Potato gro bags for the garden, and four varieties for the allotments thirty foot rows. They will be staggered between June to September to give us a steady supply of home grown potatoes.
My emails are full of garden ones from the major seed companies selling patio vegetable plants. Carrots, Lettuces, Tomatoes, etc.
They are all tapping into the nations mood for growing fruit and vegetables in our gardens, or in patio containers.
I watched a food program where the reporter travelled around the world to see Veg grown thousands of miles away. Showing how it was grown, harvested, packaged, then shipped to the UK.
Green Beans from Kenya, Winter Potatoes from Egypt (grown amazingly in a desert), and Pineapples from Ghana.
What struck me is that these industries provided jobs, and income for a lot of people in poorer countries. The world economy is all interlinked. The money we pay in the supermarket makes its way to Kenya and Ghana to provide schools, and infrastructure for the communities that grow these Vegetables.
The home grown veg came from people worried about the carbon from long haul flights transporting these perishables to the UK. If you look at the veg labels in a supermarket you can see where the produce comes from, as it has to be labelled "produce of".
I will photograph my new Statue, and the Snowdrops tomorrow. The camera batteries need charging up. I hope its sunny tomorrow.

1 comment:

silverseason said...

I love your pictures and the details which accompany them.

Yes, if your house is heated, heat seeps through the soil. I used to have dahlias in the ground at the chimney end of the house. They survived many Connecticut winters without needing to be taken up in the fall.