Liz Wright’s smallholding diary - Society to prevent cruelty to plants (From Smallholder)

Liz Wright’s smallholding diary - Society to prevent cruelty to plants

9:00am Wednesday 12th September 2012 in News

 Yep I am a fully paid up member of this society! It is me that annoys supermarkets by asking to see the manager and demanding they water their dying plants, it’s me that rescues half dead herbs from the cheap shelf and gives them a chance, me that waters the sad, dying plant in the ladies loo (that’s if I haven’t stuffed it in my bag to give it a new life with a window!) and it was me digging through a village skep last week and picking out plants discarded after a plant stall.

 

 

How can people do this to plants? I lost my nerve a bit and didn’t dare load up too many but on reflection and with such a hot weekend I wish I had. I left behind a beautiful Micklemas daisy and a couple of Curry plants – no doubt both now dead. I am not sure what I have brought home – two fruit bushes of some sort and a couple of ornamental thistles but they have blossomed under some water and now all I need to do is to find somewhere in our jungle to plant them out.

While I am thinking of plants, I also have amassed a small but select collection of ready and prepared meal boxes which are invaluable for garden use. I hate waste and I hate excess packaging and rarely use ready meals but every so often there is something tempting and very low priced in the cheap shelf that comes with its own black plastic moulded box which is ideal for keeping bulbs in the winter or saving seeds or even just a container for so many uses. Life has not taught me to declutter or throw things away – far from it. It has taught me that if you keep something long enough and providing you can remember what you have done with it, sooner or later it will have a use. This is particularly true in the world of gardening. In my little sheds I have so many useful things plus of course I save all plastic pots for future use. I can always lay my hand on the right sized pot, plant bottom, seed container or something to freeze fruit and rather than declutter I think I shall just have to find some more space for these useful things!