Thursday 22 September 2011

I'm gonna be round my vegetables...

It's not entirely clear what draws me to grow my own stuff.  Most recently it seems to be driven by the demands of the camera...but back in the days of my film camera this certainly wasn't the case.  Nevertheless, ever since I had my own plot of ground, the urge for decking and a nice patio set has never outweighed the somewhat strange desire to grow vegetables.

Marrows and spaceship squash © 2010 Trout Mask

Not that I'm especially good at this.  It has to be said that their have been some pretty spectacular disasters.  It's taken me fifteen years years after the first boiled broccoli and braised caterpillar incident to even consider growing broccoli again.  This year I'm attempting the purple sprouting stuff, and that's only because my Dad gave me some plants and I reckon that its spindly nature might host less surprises come Sunday dinner time.  Perhaps. 

But still, I consider growing stuff to be just one of those things that I do.  When I moved house to a garden so full of trees that the ground has more in common with a forest floor, I put my name down for an allotment.  Some people might like to watch TV of an evening...I like nothing more than a energetic dig and a bit of pyromania in a rusty old barrel.  It's been a massively hard job to get the ground right and get on top of the wasteland the local council allocated to me, but each year I find that our diet is supplemented that little more with fresh veg.  Last year was the first time that I could cancel the organic box for months on end over the summer period and also the year that I managed to really hurt my right elbow carrying buckets of produce home!
Pepper and tomatoes © 2010 Trout Mask

The ressurection of the greenhouse this May (it had been languishing in pieces under those bloody trees in the back garden for years) has restored tomatoey joy to my home, and my little apple tree has started to produce fruit at last.  These apples were picked and fiercely guarded whilst I found the time to give them the photo call that they deserved.    When Mr Z tried to share the delights of "tree apples" (hmmm, so where do the others come from?) with visiting friends, they were somewhat confused by the mum who actually said that NO WAY were they allowed to eat the fruit...

A real 'tree apple' © 2010 Trout Mask

And I plan to take it further...I am incredibly tempted by growing winter veg this year and although I've left it too late to get the plants on the go from seed, I think I'm going to treat myself (yes, you heard right - treat!) to a selection box of plants to grow.  There's possibly something a little skew-wiff in my girly head that rates this as a joy way higher than Pandora, but hey.

Next time I must tell you about the hens...