We think it's now time to pass on 'The Patch' to another younger gardener.
Just recently, Mrs Growster suggested that we should look a bit more at our own garden at home, which is large enough to keep me occupied for several hours each day, and then there's the mowing outside, some tree-lopping, the ivy on the church brick walls and paving, and all the hedges etc.
We were discussing (over a tincture of course - that's when decisions are taken), a section in the front where we hadn't really done much for a few years, and when I got stuck into the clearing and cleaning, the real picture emerged...
It was just like the sort of garden you take on when a place has been empty for several years, (like 'The Turrets' had been when we moved here in 1989), and I felt a bit morose about it all, as we have a lovely position near the church, and the old place deserves much more attention and - yes - TLC!
We love 'The Patch', but last year, we gave away loads of veg and fruit; I went off soup (don't ask), so some of the leeks are still there, and planting potatoes is getting a bit hard these days. The couch grass still threatens us every time we do the weeding, and getting up and down on the kneeler takes a few seconds longer as well...
So we're going to down-size the veg and fruit, and instead of growing eighty tomato plants, and five cucumbers, we'll more than halve that. I've got space in all the corners here at home, and can do to the carrots which we always do now, (in buckets), as we will try the leeks (although this is still under discussion). I can still grow as many beans as we want here, including the new varieties generously supplied by Sunny, and we always grow sweetcorn here as I want to beat the record of one minute 45 seconds from garden to saucepan...
The greenhouse will be full as usual, and we're planning moving some fruit bushes like red currants back here, more as a gesture than a necessity, but I do love growing them!
Chatting with a good plot neighbour this morning, I realised that a decision like this is better made when you don't need, or have to decide, and fitness isn't a problem. That way, I can arrange a reduced gardening regime to get the hands as dirty as possible, but without all the harder effort like mowing, digging etc. What is a bit odd, is that only a few months ago, we were considering taking on another half plot, as there were several fruit trees there. That idea went south when I tried to strim it and it was so bad, I decided there and then that enough work like that was just not needed for a few apples!
So, come October, Growster will be in a minor key, perhaps out on the wing, but still annoying everyone about what it used to be like, growing an acre of leeks, a whole field of tomatoes, and covering half my village with either fleece or manure - whatever takes your fancy..;0)