Gardening Attire

Tags

Alan Titchmarsh, allotment, Carol Klein, Monty Don, rachel de thame, Sarah Raven, what you wear

What do you wear when gardening?

So what do you wear when you’re gardening or at the allotment? Are you like Alan Titchmarsh wearing jeans, a jumper and boots? Do you emulate Monty Don and his intriguing uniform of blue shirt come smock? I always wondered where he got them from until I came across an ironmongers in Ludlow that had some in stock and wondered whether this was his source. Maybe you manage to garden in a skirt a la Sarah Raven and Alys Fowler or with funky, chunky scarves like Carol Klein.

Me . . . . well I like to think of my gardening attire as ‘scruffbag chic’. I’m messy at the best of times, although not on a par with Wellyman whose record is 2 minutes wearing a clean shirt before food ended up on it. Put me somewhere with soil, tomato feed and flower pollen and there really is no point wearing anything that is considered ‘good’. I’d love to look half as elegant as Rachel de Thame does in her Barbours, even when she’s digging up an enormous shrub. But it isn’t to be.

You will find me in jeans that are paint splattered and holey, teemed with Wellyman’s jumpers that have shrunk in the wash and an oversized fleece which has splatters of ‘Wild Thyme’ paint on it from painting the fence last year. Of course, there are my trusty green wellies but even these are looking past their best and have traces of paint on them. I told you I was messy.

The thing is I actually quite like the opportunity to not have to worry about how I look. It makes a refreshing change when there is so much focus on fake tans, designer clothes and botox everywhere you look now. A woman did turn up at the plot last year in big ‘Posh Spice’ style sunglasses, smart dark jeans and pristine black wellies. She planted up some strawberries and then I never saw her again. Allotments really aren’t the place to be precious about appearances. As I found out early on when I was caught in a torrential downpour. With nowhere to shelter on the plot, I tidied up and set off for home. By the time I got there I was completely drenched, hair plastered to my head, rivers of water running down my face and soaked right through. I got some strange looks from people as they drove past in their cars cocooned from the elements.

Fortunately, there was nobody about the other day to witness my trouser incident. Having decided to go to the plot I got changed into my scruffs. One pair of jeans had a hole in the crotch and were waiting to be patched up, my other pair had a gaping hole in the thigh and it was cold and I didn’t want a draught. After some digging around in a drawer I found another pair, got changed and wandered up to the allotment. Now these jeans normally need a belt but when I had put them on they had felt fine. I just thought that I might need to do a bit more exercise after Christmas excesses, so I didn’t bother with the belt. However, after 10 minutes or so of bending and digging something didn’t feel quite right. It was then I discovered the jeans had slipped right down and I was now displaying my knickers to the world, like some teenage boy in his deliberately saggy trousers. I am just so grateful it was January and I was alone with my embarrassment and that my oversized fleece pulled down as far as it would go protected my modesty on the walk home. Note to self, those jeans need a belt next time.

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Sweet Pea Sowing

Tags

seed sowing, sowing sweet peas, sweetpeas, when to sow

Beautiful sweet peas

It’s a pretty miserable day here with frequent heavy showers, looming dark clouds that mean I have to put the light on and it felt raw when I made the quick dash to put out the recycling bin . I often feel frustrated at this time of year, raring to go but hindered by the weather and knowing if I jump the gun the plants will only suffer. However, to cheer myself up I decided to sow the first seeds of 2012 and it was Sweet peas that had the honour. Sweet peas are hardy so you can sow them anytime between late October and April for a bountiful crop that summer. I have sown them at a variety of times before but have never had much success with sowing them in late autumn. Although they are hardy they do need some protection over winter and I have found that they succumb to the damp. Late winter and early spring sowings do very well from my experience and so I don’t bother sowing them any earlier.

Use clematis pots or similar to grow your sweet peas

The benefit of sowing Sweet peas earlier is that they establish a deep root system that helps the plants cope with any dry spells and they are much less prone to mildew. I don’t like to sow my sweet peas directly into the ground though. The soil will probably be cold and wet, possibly frozen or covered in snow. They are also at most risk from being nobbled by slugs or mice at this early stage. Instead I sow mine indoors into really tall pots such as the pots in which Clematis are planted. You can buy root-trainers but I find these a bit fiddly. I’ve also tried sowing into loo rolls but they do get really mouldy fairly quickly and start to smell. It’s not very appealing cultivating all that mould growth on my kitchen windowsill. None of these give the plants a really long root run either. I sow 5-6 seeds per pot and they can stay in these pots until I plant them out into the soil. I don’t bother soaking or chitting my Sweet peas and I haven’t had any problems with germination. Today I sowed 2 varieties – ‘Mrs. Collier’, a highly fragrant white variety and ‘Just Jenny’ a dark midnight purpley-blue with a good scent.

I filled the pots with compost at the weekend and then put the pots in the kitchen next to a radiator. I know this might sound weird but last year when I went to sow my seeds I discovered that the compost had been frozen. It was so cold that no seed would have been encouraged to germinate in it. Even with the mild winter we’ve had so far my compost has been sat in the shed and felt quite cold when I filled the pots. I always use tepid water when watering my compost. If I was a seed I wouldn’t be happy sat in cold, wet compost. And that’s it, for now. These will go into a coldframe some time in March when I will sow another batch so I have a good supply of flowers right through the summer.

A Gardener’s Life For Me?

Tags

botanic gardens, career, Chatsworth House, HBGBS, horticultural, horticulture, Tresco Abbey Gardens, WFGA

How to become a gardener for a living - pipe optional.

I was listening to a radio programme a while ago that was discussing careers with people looking to retrain and in their research it seemed most people’s dream job would involve working outside, with gardening being at the top of the list. Oddly though, horticulture doesn’t seem to appeal as a career to school leavers whether it is the practical route or studying it academically. Did you know that there are now no British universities offering botany as a degree course?

Maybe it is because the industry is known for not being well-paid. Maybe it is the working outdoors in all weathers. One of the most common routes into horticulture used to be through the parks’ departments of the local councils but a lot of what my local council does that classes as horticulture involves butchering trees and shrubs. Why spend time pruning a plant properly when a piece of machinery can reduce it’s size in seconds? I did know someone who worked for a council in the parks department and he said very few of those he worked with had a love of plants. It was just another job and purely about keeping things tidy.

However, in the last 10 – 15 years 30, 40 and 50 somethings have been leaving their jobs for a life in horticulture. Fed up of commuting and being stuck in an office staring at a computer screen many have turned to gardening for a new, more fulfilling career.

It’s not so easy moving from one career to another though, later in life when you are more likely to have commitments such as a family and mortgage but there are organisations out there that can help if you are thinking that a gardener’s life might be for you.

The Historic and Botanic Garden Bursary Scheme otherwise known as the Hee bee gee bees offers placements at a range of historic and botanic gardens, giving people the opportunity to gain practical skills, as well as theoretical knowledge.  The placement lasts a year and during this time participants are expected to keep a diary recording the tasks they carry out, taking photos and making drawings so that you can use it for reference in the future. There are plant identification tests over the course of the placement, along with 4 projects relating to the particular garden you are working in. The placement is paid but this and other terms and conditions are specific to the individual host gardens.

There are 19 participating gardens for the current year 2011-2012 which include Tresco Abbey Gardens, Chatsworth House, Crathes Castle and the National Botanic Gardens of Wales. It is possible to read case studies on the HBGBS website of current and past students.

There is also the Women’s Farm and Garden Association which offers a Women Returners to Amenity Gardening scheme (WRAGS). Aimed at women seeking a career in horticulture it was established in 1990 by the association to bridge the gap  between the high numbers taking theoretical horticultural courses and the small number able to access practical training. The scheme offers 15 hours a week in a selected garden supervised by the owner or head gardener. An allowance is paid to the trainee but transport costs, tax and NI contributions must be met by the trainee.

The HBGBS will shortly be announcing the host gardens for the next round of placements starting later this year, so for more information go to HBGBS.

More info on WRAGS can be found at WFGA.

And now for the flowers

Tags

Ammi visnaga, bees and butterflies, flower seeds, vase life

More seeds - flowers this time

When I heard the sound of the postman pushing a big, fat jiffy bag through the letter box the other day I knew my flower seeds had turned up. For the last 2 years I have grown flowers for cutting, the first year in small beds in my garden and then last year on a bigger scale on my newly acquired allotment.

I posted recently about my seed list dilemmas and putting in my vegetable seed order. Once I had these sorted out I turned my attentions to what flowers I want to grow this year and here is the list. Brace yourselves…

Rudbeckia ‘Prairie Sun’ – I grew these last year. They are so cheerful, very productive and have an excellent vase life.

Sweet Pea ‘Mrs Colier’ – Sweet peas are one of my favourites. This is a white flower with a very strong fragrance.

Zinnias ‘Giant Purple’ and ‘Yellow’ – I grew a mix last year but didn’t like some of the colours so decided on 2 single varieties this year.

Daucus carota ‘Black Knight’ – An airy, elegant flower similar to Ammi but with beautiful plum coloured flowers. This is a new one for this year.

Ammi visnaga – A beefier version of Ammi majus and is loved by hoverflies

Dill – I grew this last year for it’s great zingy yellow flowers but I also love it’s fine leaves in cooking.

Aster chinensis ‘Matsumoto Blue’ and ‘Matsumoto Crimson’ – These are new for this year. I love asters and these annuals have a long vase life and good yields.

Antirrhinum ‘White Giant’ F1 – I have grown these taller snapdragons for the last 2 years. There spires look great in arrangements.

Echium ‘Blue Bedder’ – You need to sear the stems of this so that it lasts in a vase but when I read the bees and butterflies love it I had to give it a try.

Consolida dark blue and white – These larkspur are a new one for me.

Nigella double white – I grew a mixed Nigella seed last year and was disappointed. The colours were muddy and many of the flowers distorted so I thought I would give a single variety a try.

Orlaya grandiflora – Another new one, like an elegant cow parsley apparently.

These new seeds will join ones I have collected and left over seeds such as Cosmos ‘Candy Stripe’, 4 other varieties of Sweet peas, Gaura, Didiscus, Sunflower ‘Vanilla Ice’. I know what you’re thinking ‘that’s quite a lot, where is she going to put them all’ because that is exactly what I’m thinking. Maybe I did get a bit carried away. I’m definitely wondering how I’m going to grow them all from seed without a greenhouse but I did it last year. I just need to be organised !!!!

I bought all of my flower seeds from Sarah Raven. I like the specialist advice that she gives, using the experience from her own cutting garden. She trials everything that is in her catalogue and only the best go in. I find a lot of seed catalogues only sell mixed varieties which I don’t like. Invariably there are 2 or 3 colours in the mix I don’t like so the patch becomes less productive when there are a lot of flowers I don’t want to pick. I find Sarah Raven has a good selection of single varieties and flowers that I haven’t seen elsewhere. I can also recommend Plants of Distinction who have a great selection of single coloured Antirrhinums, Sweet peas and Zinnias. Kings are also good for Sweet peas.

So I’m all set now. I just need to be patient (easier said than done), only a couple more weeks and I can get sowing.

The Quest for Woodchip

Tags

allotment, New Year's resolutions

the storage area on my plot

I’m just about to embark on tidying up the storage end of my allotment. I can’t say it’s a task I’m looking forward to but it is one of those jobs that will make life easier during the hectic growing season. This part of the plot is the only bit that we left as arranged by the previous tenants. We aren’t allowed sheds on the site so the previous tenants had erected a makeshift wooden fence behind which all my tools and canes etc are stored. This has worked fine over the last year, it’s just by the end of the summer it does get a bit overgrown with weeds. So I need to get in there and tackle the nettles and the stems of an old plum tree that keep pushing through.

The main problem with this part of the plot was the grass path between my planting beds and the storage area. We don’t have a strimmer and it proved very difficult to keep on top of the grass, so much so that after a two week holiday I came back to find that the hosepipe had been swallowed up by the grass. It took a good couple of minutes to extricate the hose. It was at this point I thought that I really needed to do something about the path and the occasional trim with garden shears clearly wasn’t good enough. Of course I never got round to doing anything, I had plenty of other demands on my time.

However, this year one of my New Year’s resolutions is to get rid of the grass. I’m going to skim off the surface layer of grass and put down some weed membrane and cover it with chipped bark like the other paths on the plot. Thinking about doing this has reminded me of the lengths we went to last year to get the woodchip. I had finished laying the weed membrane and putting in wooden planks for the paths by the start of March and then started looking for something to cover the paths. We knew it would be too expensive to buy woodchip from garden centres. I had a look on the internet and found a few sites but even these worked out at £150. I contacted several local tree surgeons who sounded interested in getting rid of some woodchip rather than having to pay to dispose of it. Unfortunately, none of them were keen enough to actually turn up and drop any off. So by April we still had nothing on the membrane but then Wellyman spotted mounds of chipped bark lining the wooded verge of a local dual carriageway that had been left by the local council after tree cutting.

So that Sunday we spent 3 hours collecting 2 tonnes of woodchip and filling green waste bags and stuffing them in the boot. We parked in laybys so we were safe and amusingly we weren’t the only ones doing it. People driving past must have wondered why there was a sudden demand for woodchip. The main problem was that once you’re on this particular stretch of road you have to keep going for 10 miles until you can turn around. We made 6 trips and did over 100 miles!!! We weren’t in the best of moods by the time we’d finished but the paths were covered and for free (fortunately Wellyman has a car with work so he doesn’t have to pay for the fuel).

This year I will have only one path that needs covering but I’m already on the look out for signs of the local council chopping down trees. I’d love to hear if anyone has done something similar, in the quest to save money, create a special look or just in the spirit of recycling. Gardeners are nothing if not resourceful!

Carpets of Snowdrops

Tags

galanthus, painswick rococo gardens, snowdrops, spring bulbs

Snowdrops at Painswick

I have one or two clumps of snowdrops starting to flower in my own garden and as much as I am charmed by their appearance, they cannot compete with the sight of carpets of snowdrops that will grace many gardens over the next month or so.

I am lucky enough to be within visiting distance of two of the most famous snowdrop displays in the UK, Painswick Rococo Gardens and Colesbourne and nothing can beat the spectacular sight of thousands of snowdrop flowers en masse.

Snowdrops en masse at Painswick

Galanthophiles, otherwise known as snowdrop lovers, flock every February to Colesbourne in Gloucestershire, once the home of one of the most famous galanthophiles, Henry John Elwes. There are now 250 varieties at Colesbourne, the first named Galanthus elwesii was brought back from Turkey by Henry in 1874. His family still live at Colesbourne and the present owners have done much to build the collection.

Colesbourne snowdrops (image taken from snowdrop.org.uk)

Snowdrops for some reason seem to appeal to the collector. I have to admit that I find it difficult to see the difference between some of the varieties and yet there are those who will pay up to £25 for a pot of Galanthus ‘Lapwing’. I do, however understand why they are such a loved plant. They are one of the first flowers to appear and are hardy little things often poking up through the snow and frost. They signal a change in the seasons, with a much longed for spring on it’s way.

Colesbourne isn’t just about snowdrops though. Other spring bulbs feature such as cyclamen, crocus, daffodils and muscari, along with an excellent range of hellebores. When we visited last year I was particularly impressed with the number of winter flowering honeysuckle plants dotted around the garden, their scent was sublime. If you fancy taking a plant away with you there is a good selection and plenty that don’t cost £25. Interestingly, they dig up their bulbs when they are dormant and pot them up ready for you to plant when you get home. They believe they do better this way as there is less root damage than transplanting them when they are in the green.

Painswick is another place worth a visit to see snowdrops. The garden was designed in the 1740s in what became known as a ‘rococo style’ but by 1970 it had become an overgrown jungle. Garden historians became interested in Painswick and the owner set in place a restoration project using a painting of the gardens from 1748. It is thought that John Atkins, a retired nurseryman living in an estate cottage was the first to introduce snowdrops to Painswick. It now has one of the largest naturalistic plantings of the bulb.

I love visiting gardens and by January I am always starting to feel withdrawal symptoms, so it is great that there are places that celebrate late winter and early spring and give us gardeners, who have been cooped up all winter, an opportunity to get out  and be inspired.

I unfortunately remembered when trying to find the photos for Colesbourne that the battery on our camera died that day, which was and still is very annoying. Oh well, I guess it’s a good excuse for a return visit.

Super Seaweed

Tags

coral beach, isle of skye, sea environment, soil improver, vitamins and minerals

Seaweed on Branscombe Beach

We’re all familiar with the term ‘superfoods’ referring to foods such as blueberries and cherries that are packed with vitamins and minerals which make them great foods for us to eat. But what about a ‘superfood’ to feed our plants? Seaweed is packed with nutrients that are beneficial to humans. It features as an ingredient in Japanese cuisine and has been an important element in beauty treatments for many years, you can even bathe in the stuff in special bath houses in Ireland. But it is in the garden that most people are familiar with seaweed.

For centuries, humans have used seaweed as a soil improver and fertiliser to feed their crops. It contains the main nutrients plants need along with a whole range of trace elements that are often lacking in other fertilisers.

Seaweed proved particularly useful to crofters on the Scottish islands where the soil wasn’t very deep and lacked nutrients. Crofters practiced what was known as the ‘lazy bed’ system, where seaweed was placed next to trenches for several weeks to rot down and then incorporated into the trenches. The seaweed would provide all the nutrients and organic matter that the crops would need.

Coral Beach – the Isle of Skye

We were on holiday last year on the Isle of Skye and visited the island’s Coral Beach. The beach is made up of maerl rather than sand. Maerl is the remains of seaweed washed up on shore and then their lime rich tissue is bleached by the sun. Crofters used this calcified seaweed as a way of liming their land whilst adding nutrients to the soil. Calcified seaweed is still available but it is often collected from the seabed by dredging and so is damaging to the sea environment. Some calcified seaweed is more sustainable than others so it is always worth checking with the manufacturer as to the provenance.

Scientific study has shown that the beneficial effects of seaweed include increased resistance to frost damage and attacks by pests. It can improve the condition of clay soils and if used as a mulch around the base of plants the salt content can deter slugs (taken from Flora Celtica). Seaweed has been very important to the potato farmers on Jersey since the 12th century. They had the right to collect seaweed and spread it on their fields and it is believed that it is the seaweed that gives Jersey potatoes their distinctive flavour. Perhaps more importantly it is thought that the chemical compounds in seaweed can suppress eelworm a nematode that lives in the soil and attacks potato tubers burrowing into them.

The RHS says it is not necessary to let fresh seaweed rot down and it is actually best dug into the ground fresh. I always thought the salt content of seaweed would be damaging to plants but the RHS says that the content of salt is usually not high enough to damage crops or the soil. It does point out however, that there is no public right to collect seaweed from the shore and that you should get permission of the landowner before filling your car-boot.

I have used seaweed meal, which is seaweed that has been crushed and then dried, on the soil on my allotment and in my garden as a soil conditioner. Apparently it helps to build up the bacteria in the soil that break down organic matter and worms are rather partial to it too. I also like to use liquid seaweed feed, spraying it onto the leaves of plants. The nutrients are absorbed really quickly by the plant this way and is especially beneficial for any sickly looking plants that need a bit of a boost. Taking a tip from Monty Don, on Gardeners’ World last year, I sprayed my box balls that weren’t looking too good after the harsh winter with seaweed feed once a month and they soon had lovely dark, glossy green leaves.

It is possible to get dried seaweed pellets from a company called The Natural Gardener. The seaweed is harvested sustainably on the Shetland Isles and is then dried and bagged up. The pellets can be mixed into a compost heap, sprinkled around established plants or put in the bottom of your potato trenches. I know I’d much rather use a natural, sustainable product such as seaweed than any chemically produced fertilisers.

It felt like spring, it doesn’t now

Tags

daffodils, flowering plants, Prince Charles, snowdrops

Frosty garden

I woke up this morning to the hardest frost of the winter so far but this was in stark contrast to the weather we’ve had the rest of the week here in Wales. A mild and sunny week tempted me out into the garden to tackle the dead foliage and seedheads that were starting to make the garden look a bit messy.

As I worked my way around the garden with my secateurs I could see the effects the mild winter has had. New buds and shoots were emerging all over the place. As I pulled out old Alchemilla foliage, patches of snowdrops appeared. Clumps of daffodils were discovered, along with the first signs of one of my favourite plants Dicentra spectabilis alba. A tiny blue flower had been encouraged to open on Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’, there were shoots of Gladiolus communis byzanntinus and Nectaroscordum.

Gladiolus communis byzantinus shoots

Mmmmmm…. this all felt too early. Much as I am eager to see the first signs of growth I was looking at the plants and telling them it was too early. Do other people talk to their plants? I know Prince Charles does but it surely can’t just be me and His Royal Highness. Anyway perhaps I got carried away just like the plants and I should have waited a little longer to start the tidy up because some cold wintry weather has arrived and I’m now worried the plants will suffer. In effect I’ve taken away their duvet and then left them to fend for themselves.

Frosted sedum shoots

The early flowering plants will be fine. They have adapted to cope with the fluctuations in weather that happen as winter passes into spring. It is the later flowering plants that have been encouraged into early growth that I’m worried about. But as a gardener you just have to learn that there is little you can do about the weather and that plants are often tougher than we think. Some plants have proteins in their cells that act as antifreeze protecting them from harsh winter weather. And if I hadn’t tidied things up I would have missed out on these little beauties….

Sweet little snowdrops

Seeds Galore

Tags

seed catalogues, spring onion, varieties of lettuce, vegetable seeds

Seeds Galore

So I finally got myself organised enough the other day to order my vegetable seeds. After lots of humming and hawing, I had to look this phrase up, I thought it was umming and arring and wasn’t sure how to spell it and then discovered it was actually humming and hawing. It’s amazing what you can find out just by writing a post. Anyway I digress. After lots of pondering over seed catalogues and plans of my allotment. I finally plumped for the following varieties:

Mangetout Pea Ezeta’s Krombek Blauwschokker which I’ve seen recommended by quite a few people including Jamie Oliver in his excellent Jamie at Home book

Peas Kelvedon Wonder and Greenshaft

Broad Bean Masterpiece Longpod

Borlotti Beans Lingua di Fuoco

Climbing French Bean Blauhilde

Cucumber Crystal Lemon an amazing looking yellow round fruit. I’ve heard it can be a bit difficult but I wanted to give something a bit different a try.

Beetroots Barbietola di Chioggia and Pablo

Celeriac Prinz

Chinese Broccoli KaiBroc like a tenderstem broccoli but because it is so fast growing you can crop from it after 9 weeks from sowing.

Spring Onion Summer Isle a Japanese bunching onion which apparently has a milder flavour

and finally 3 varieties of Lettuce, Freckles, Lobjoits and Rubens.

These are joined by the seeds I got at the Seedy Sunday at Holt Farm, Uchiki Kuri squash, dwarf french bean Yugoslavian Black Bean and Victorian Purple Podded peas.

I ordered my seed from More Veg. After posting about my seed choosing dilemmas I received a couple of comments recommending More Veg because they sell seeds in smaller quantities and as a result are cheaper. I had never come across them before but most people are left with seeds at the end of every season. One catalogue I was looking at was selling packets of 500 cabbage seeds. I really can’t imagine why anyone, unless you run a market garden, would want 500 cabbage seeds. More Veg’s website is really easy to use. I ordered my seeds on Tuesday and they arrived yesterday so I couldn’t complain about the service and each packet of seeds comes with good sowing and growing instructions and includes how to cook the vegetable which I think is a nice touch.

I just can’t wait to get growing now.

You can find More Veg at www.moreveg.co.uk 

My Green Gym

Tags

allotment

Just what is needed after a hard day's gardening - a long hot soak in the bath!!!

So it’s that time of year again when my body wonders what has hit it. When joints ache and muscles that went into hibernation over winter are rediscovered. As the garden and allotment start to come to life and demand some attention my body too, creaks and groans back into action.

Its not like I have spent the winter sat on the sofa. I swim twice a week and do a lot of walking but for some reason the first couple of months back in the garden do take some getting used to. All that bending and stretching for a couple of hours to weed and prune certainly gives me a good workout.

On Monday I thought I would make the most of the strangely mild and dry weather for January and tackle the back garden, cutting back dead foliage and seedheads but within hours of finishing I could feel my back stiffening up. After sitting on the sofa for a while it took some effort and a push from Wellyman to stand up. Fortunately a soak in the bath helped, although I did groan when I got out of bed yesterday morning.

This time last year I was making my paths at the allotment. It was pretty hard work manoeuvring 6ft planks of wood into place (I’m not quite 5ft myself) and digging the trenches to hold the wood and weed membrane in place. I would return home aching, exhausted and looking a right mess in my scruffy clothes that were covered in soil. The only thing I wanted to do was jump in the bath, well it was more of a crawl actually, I didn’t have the energy for jumping into anything. It took a couple of months for my body to get used to the effort but by April I felt really fit, what became known in the Welly household as ‘allotment fit’.

I love my swims but I have never been a fan of gyms. Years ago my friend Judi and I signed up to the gym at University and only made it as far as the changing rooms. We were put off by the supremely fit looking men strutting their stuff, so we made a quick exit and ended up in the pub opposite. We never returned and I have never joined a gym since. The thought of being stuck inside, doing repetitive exercises whilst watching tv monitors showing programmes I have no desire to watch cannot compete with being outdoors in the fresh air, listening to the birds sing and getting exercise whilst doing something useful. My green gym wins every time.