Gardening as a beginner

So my great weight loss challenge has begun. I don’t want six pack abs at my age but I don’t want a family pack either.

Apart from parking the motor vehicle and getting on a bicycle or walking, what else can I do to lose a few pounds weight?

As I ponder the what if’s and wherefores, I think back to younger days and try to recall what my parents did to keep us all fit and healthy although they had nothing of monetary value apart from the rented council house that sat on an acre of ground and certainly no access to gym or other keep fit classes.

It dawned on me, that as a child, running or walking the mile or so to the “local” shop for groceries probably helped a lot, as well as walking to school, kicking a ball or playing “cowboys and Indians” with my father chasing us all over the field and up and down the tilled earth rows of propped garden peas. How could I forget the smell of the damp earth as I lay motionless behind the towering stalks of the Brussels sprouts hoping I was well hidden?

There was the answer. The garden. My dad had a beautiful garden. It was full of every type of vegetable you could imagine. Garden peas, runner beans, french beans, broad beans, cucumber, lettuces, onions, cabbage, chives, shallots, sprouts, tomatoes, leeks, carrots, parsnips and the horrible vegetable marrows which I hated then and still do today. Spuds and kale and the experimental area where pumpkins lived and died and fruit bush cuttings fought with each other for the horse manure my father placed in such high regard. I know he planted aubergines and they looked stunning in their beautiful dark silky skins but I hated them almost as much as the bloody marrows. Man was he a great believer in giving his kids a taste of the exotic and we certainly had our 5 a day.

So thank you Jesse Butler where ever your spirit flies today. I have decided to have a go at the gardening to see if I can achieve just a fraction of what you did but also to give myself some fresh wholesome (organic?) veggies and of course, it’ll get me out in the air.

Here is what I am tackling today. An old glass house that’s missing 12 panes of glass and is full of nettles and grass with trailing briers everywhere.

First task is to remove the briers and nettles so I’ll post again soon with a few pics of progress. I’m hoping to have it looking ok in about a week or so.