Onions and Carrots Galore

I had the pleasure of talking recently with my step-son in the UK. He is quite a guy; a person able to make goals and stick to them in the face of adversity. But, back to today. Iain and his wife, Suzanne, recently moved into another house which requires a lot of TLC and a lot of money to get the TLC on the table. Suzanne is a great decorator and I know when the house is finished it will look superb.

They also acquired an acre of land with the house, with two dog runs dominating the landscape. The previous owner, I understand, was a dog breeder. With a mind to cut the cost of living, which is prohibitively high in England, Iain and Suzanne decided to turn one of the dog runs into a sort an allotment plot. In the middle of house renovations, and work, Iain makes the decision to rent a rotavator to transform the one dog run into a viable piece of land on which to grow veggies of all sorts, sizes and descriptions.

Iain, being Iain, had done all his ‘market garden’ research thoroughly before committing to this plan, including price comparisons with what was available in the supermarket, and the best growing facilities for the produce. In some cases, buckets will work! I was getting so enthused with his descriptions, I pictured myself running out to buy buckets to grow various vegetables!

Then came the crowning announcement. He had bought 3 packets of carrot and onion seed, hoping that it would be enough. When he looked closely, at the packets, he discovered that one packet of carrot seed would produce 3,500 carrots, and one packet of onion seed would produce 2,600 onions. He decided that discretion was the better part of valour and that he would refrain from purchasing any more carrot and onion seeds.

I could not restrain my laughter and suggested that perhaps he’d better set up a vegetable stall outside the house, which would contribute further to his increased economic status.

Finally, our phone call came to an end, and I immediately went to see my husband and suggested that we should resurrect the appropriate pots and frames to grow tomatoes and pepper on the deck. With an uncertain economic future, maybe we should be using common sense and producing fresh, organic vegetables for ourselves. It made sense and, after all, there is nothing like home-grown tomatoes.

The Old Biddy



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