Life goes on…
It’s been so long since I wrote a post that it is hard to know how to begin, but with spring in sight, perhaps now is the right time. I will start with an explanation of my absence. It’s been a difficult year…
Towards the end of 2021 my dad, gardening hero and fellow allotmenteer, was diagnosed with a brain tumour. He passed away on April 12th 2022, aged 92. Just eleven days later, brokenhearted, his wife of over seventy years, died too.
Mum and Dad pictured here in their late 80s with a couple of pumpkins from the garden. In the conservatory behind some of mum’s pelargoniums can be seen.
As you might remember from an earlier post, it was my dad who introduced me to gardening, and in particular vegetable growing, and I will always be grateful to him for that.
Dad loved his garden. It was put to good use providing an ample supply of delicious vegetables when the family was young. I have little doubt that his diet of wholesome, home-grown produce was significant to his longevity and the good health he enjoyed into his nineties.
In later years, with less mouths to feed more of the garden was used for ornamentals. It was a beautiful garden, prompting many a dog walker to stop to compliment the gardener on his achievements - his dahlias were stuff of legend!
Well into his retirement dad gardened for people in the village where he lived. ‘The old folk I do a bit of work for’ as he described them, regardless of the fact that he was older than most of them!
After dad’s diagnosis he continued to look after his garden as well as he could. I think it was his little bit of normality as he was conscious that the life that he had managed so well for so long unravelled around him. I should add that I also found solace in my allotment even though I have not found my mind in a good enough place for writing.
It is fitting that one of the last things we did together was sow some broad bean seeds. He tended them in his greenhouse whilst he was able and I planted them out into my allotment shortly after he died.
When I harvested the beans I saved a few for seed. They are in an envelope marked ‘Dad’s Beans’. I will sow them soon and again I will save a few as seed for next year. Life goes on…
My dad, gardening hero and mentor, on his allotment.
I miss my dad. Not only for his gardening skills and advice, but for his ready wit, his cheerful laughter and his consistent ability to tell me off for swearing, even when I was over sixty myself. He will always be with me, particularly at the allotment.
Here’s a link to some jobs that you might like to do this month