hi just wanted to share the fact i have a five inch courgette on my allotment it is the first thing ive grown myself and the buzz was amazing. let me know how you felt the first time
When I was 15 we moved to a new place up a small hollow in southern WV right after school let out. No drivers license, no other kids close by, so I decided to convert a 50x100 fenced triangle that had long, long ago been a chicken lot into a garden. No power tools, I had a mattock and a hoe. Dug the whole thing up with a mattock, throwing the bigger rocks over the fence on one side. When I was done it looked like somebody had done a sloppy job of building a rock wall outside the fence, the place was more rock than dirt. For all that backbreaking work I got a few runty short carrots, some green onions, a handful of twisty little bush beans and a couple of glorious (to me) yellow crookneck squash plants to grow. I ate those squash like they were T-bone steaks! Yeah, it's a good feeling, nothing quite like it. I'm glad you had good luck with your garden.
If that area had been a chicken pen, things should have grown extremely well. As for your carrots...root crops are tricky, if the area was clay soil, you'd have trouble getting good ones. Laidback, I grew up growing things under my mom's and grandma's wings. But yeah, the first time is great. I really enjoyed my first tomato this year, the rest have been good, but that first one...which I ate on a burger was special. No squash this year, the damn wild turkeys keep chewing on the plants, they are alive, but no fruit so far.
Well, you'da thunk it, I figured it would have been pretty rich soil. It looked to have been a chicken lot, but the last time there'd been chickens in it was when Christ was corporeal. Any goodness in the ground had long since been rained out and washed down the creek. It was clay, the small part that wasn't rock or sand. Or really small rocks. Or medium-sized rocks. Or roots. It was a dismal place to garden but it was all I had, and I had nothing better to do that summer. Served its purpose though, it made me keenly appreciate better ground, and it gave me a lasting respect for folks who do the rough work in this world. My son once told me he was prejudiced against Mexicans. "Why's that?" I asked. He said, "I just hate Manuel Laybore". 8o)
Hey that's what comes of not knowing the land. Sorry you worked so hard, but hey you added to the history of the place. Clay has a lot of things going against it most times, but usually it's pretty fertile, not good for root crops because they can't expand, but usually fertile anyway for flowers and top fruiting crops. Don't have any idea what your last reference refers to.
If your kid relegates others as below his consideration because they perform manual labor, more is the loss to him and your family. Especially if you pretend to be a gardener or grower. One can't do that without getting one's nails dirty.
Kind of a feeble joke. "Manuel Laybore" = manual labor, my son doesn't care much for busting his ass with hand tools (it's a lot funnier when he tells it). Besides, he's a tattoo artist, he's got to keep those hands in good shape. It's not a question of him feeling "above" anyone, he just likes what he does better. Hell, I'm a retired coal miner, so was his grandpa (my side, his mom's dad was a farmer), and his greatgrandpa (both sides of the family).
Yeah got to keep those hand clean, and run others down. I also have a degree in fine arts but I never ran down those who worked manually. Not funny in my estimation. Or an example I would set for my children.
I removed my last edit, since you posted at about the same time and leaving it would have been a cheap shot. It was: I meant it. He was being funny, using "Manuel" instead of "manual" because it sorta rhymes. I assure you that neither of us dislike Mexicans, although he isn't found of doing hard manual labor himself. I can't say I care that much for it myself, I've had my turn at that. You'll have a hard time finding anyone more humble than either of us when it comes to appreciation of the average working man. Orrin doesn't want to take that path, because he saw it break me down. I started as a farm laborer, then a low-seam coal miner (that's the crawly kind of mining), a dynamiter, a fur trapper, a truck driver, and a shitload of other jobs "no American wants" I managed at 34 to get through a BBA Finance and had a couple of "pretty hands" jobs before my body gave up on me, so I've seen that side too. You're taking offense where no offense is intended. But don't let me spoil your righteous indignation if it floats yer boat.
Ok Gaston. Been there done that, but as a teenager, I worked my butt off doing what grandma and mom wanted done. Picked peaches, prunes, moved pipe cleaned stalls and worked the almond belts. I dug ditches, and I appreciate a good plumber as I am sure you do. Also worked in offices, and know what I'd rather do manual labor than work in another office. I saw too many really nice/good people turn shitty through office politics. Never encountered that doing manual labor. Guess you are too tired to stab anyone in the back.
