Tags
broad bean sowing, clare matthews, frustrations of modern life, RHS Award of Garden Merit, The Low Maintenance Garden
Somewhere to Escape - My Garden in Summer
I’ve just spent half an hour on the phone to my bank whose security features are so robust I can’t even access my own account. They’ve implemented a new faster payment service but are now so worried about fraudulent transactions, every time I use the account it is frozen. This is even after I have had to undergo the tortuous process of remembering passwords, ID codes, pin numbers and obscure security questions such as my favourite food to make the transaction in the first place. Am I the only one whose brain struggles with the myriad of pin numbers and passwords I need to retain? For heaven’s sake, I even need a pin number for my library card.
Then there’s the washing machine which has managed to time it’s hissy fit until it is safely out of the guarantee. Are these machines programmed to do this? And don’t get me started on the supposed advance in technology that is digital TV and it’s ability to scramble the picture at crucial points during a programme.
As modern life gets more complicated and the gadgets that were supposed to save us time actually create more problems I don’t think it is a surprise that so many of us retreat to our gardens and allotments. These spaces really do feel like an escape from the modern world. I nearly always feel better about the world after an hour or so on my plot. The jobs such as weeding, staking and deadheading are simple but incredibly absorbing, a form of meditation really. There is always so much to do, there is little time to stop and think and that’s how I like it. The tools I use are simple, no complicated buttons to press, nothing asking for a pin number before I can use it here. I love how even a short amount of time spent in my garden or on the allotment reaps instant rewards. Even if it is as simple as weeding and making a patch look tidy I go away feeling satisfied but with a lot of modern life there isn’t that same sense of achievement.
The ground is still a bit too wet to do anything on the plot but I knew I wanted to do something that would take my mind off the frustrations of modern life so I sowed some broad beans in pots on my window sill. I didn’t grow broad beans last year but they’re one of my favourites and always really expensive to buy. I choose the variety ‘Masterpiece Longpod’ on the basis that it is strong growing, has an excellent flavour, apparently and has an AGM award from the RHS. The Royal Horticulture Society performs trials of selected plants every year, growing a number of varieties of each to see which perform the best and then awarding these the Award of Garden Merit (AGM). It’s always worth looking out for the symbol, a green label with a white trophy in the centre, on plant labels and seed packets. There are so many varieties out there and sometimes it is overwhelming deciding which ones to pick. The AGM award gives you the reassurance that that variety performs well.
You can sow some varieties of broad beans in late autumn but I read in Clare Matthews’ The Low Maintenance Garden that if you live somewhere with particularly wet winters, and I do, it is best to sow in late winter. Once the seed have germinated, I’ll put them straight into my cold frame and then hopefully it won’t be long before I can plant them into the ground.
A little spot of seed sowing wasn’t quite as effective an antidote to modern life as an hours digging but I’ll take what I can get at the moment.
The ground at the allotment was frozen solid when my hubby ventured down there on Saturday, so definitely no digging for us. I’ve sown some broad beans though, I’m just hoping that I like them now as I didn’t when I was a child.
I hated broad beans as a child but the key is to double pod them. It was the outside grey skin that made them tough and horrible. Release the beautiful green bean inside and it makes such a difference
I agree whole-heartedly about all the pin numbers and account numbers and questions. I arranged to be able to view my bank account on line and thought of a great number I could actually remember. When I accessed the account he last time it said I hadn’t used the number recently so would have to ahve a new pass number! Gardening is certainly the best antidote! Christina
Gosh what timing. I have just spent an hour and a half trying different passwords in an attempt to access some account. I finally added a number and got through-what a bl…y boring and stressful waste of time. And yes to allotment therapy and yes to it being too cold and wet currently and yes to sowing broad beans at home.
Ground very wet here too but I have been planting seeds and digging in the polytunnel. I know what you mean about the pin numbers all right. Passwords too, they just do my head in.
Thanks for reminding me to sow the broad beans, I too hated them when given them as school dinners. If picked when young, they don’t develop the second skin and they are delightful. Passwords and numbers are a pain but unfortunately part of modern life, I make mine as simple as possible.
I know what you mean about passwords and pin numbers, you convince yourself that you are using the correct one, but you haven’t added the number at the end or you’ve got the CAPS LOCK on – but by that time you have tried 3 times and you need to reset…. blah blah blah! I even need 2 door keys and 2 security codes to get into work and that’s before I have logged onto the computer when I have 4 different passwords for the different software I use. Modern day life sure can be hard, but yes gardening and even thinking about gardening in reading books and magazines calms me down! Hope you are a little more chilled out now
The lovely picture is relaxing too. Soon enough we’ll all be out in the garden again. I know I’m counting the days…
I sympathise! I try to have as little contact with my bank as possible as any such encounters tend to send my blood pressure soaring!
Even a potter round the plot helps and a morning plotting is heaven indeed. xx
Maybe you’ve just hit the nail on the head as to why so many of us need to dig in the dirt – low tech! No passwords, no frustrating computers, no recordings. Just old fashioned low tech living. Such a nice change, and much less frustrating! Good luck with your beans.
I’m sure planting broad beans is very calming… I have to talk to HMRC at work tomorrow, so I’d better find my beans, right now, in preparation…
BTW, I’ve never planted mine in autumn – I just feel instinctively that it’s too wet where I am. Glad to know it’s not just me, and that this practice is endorsed!
Oh so true! My washing machine also chose to break down days after the guarantee expired, the Sky when the final of Australian Masterchef was due having watched it every day for what seemed like a whole year and banks well don’t even start me on them! But yes the blissful simplicity of the allotment although at the moment it is cold but that just blows away the cobwebs and clears the mind.
I sympathise with the password etc dilemma having spent time this morning accessing three online bank accounts and having to look up three or four bits of information for each. My brain does not retain this kind of information yet finds no problems with Latin names for plants.
No wonder the garden is a refuge!
I am personally convinced that white goods like washing machines are indeed built to fall apart just a few months after the warranty runs out. It is a source of huge frustration – and expense! As to remembering passwords, pin numbers and security questions, don’t get me started… Sowing broad beans sounds like the perfect antidote, and something I should think about doing too.
I curse passwords regularly especially when I get them mixed up with each other or have to change them. I regularly used to try and persuade the keypad at work to let me in with my PIN number and then be puzzled as to why it would not oblige. Gardening indeed is the perfect recipe to sooth the furrowed brow. Hope that your broad beans are soon showing green and bringing a smile to your face