Thursday......Nearly Friday.

In today's Issue

Something new,,,,A serial
Garden Facts
Breaking the Law
Trivial Top 10
Finish with a Song

Something New
I was asked recently to come up with a story suitable for
a specific magazine...

This is what I came up with, see if your can guess what kind
of magazine it was....

(by the way, Yeadon is a real place, from my home town)

The Garden of Yeadon

Neville Raper 2017

So now I’m in the Autumn of my years, falling leaves and chilly nights.

It has been said by people much cleverer than me, that age is just a number and that we all remain the same in our heads no matter how our physical bodies change. I believe this is the case, for in my mind I’m still in my thirties and, it’s still spring.

I’ve never married, oh I’ve had the chance but never seemed to find the “one”.  I kept waiting and waiting, but she never arrived.

So I moved on, I worked, I paid my taxes until I got the gold watch.

Then two years ago I discovered  Xanadu in my neighbourhood my piece of countryside. My allotment.

Here I see the fruits of my endeavours, the seeds, my children,  I watch them grow and mature.  I share my bountiful harvest with my friends. Casting my vegetarian offspring into the world.

To garden is to admit to yourself that there is a future, for you plan, you plant, you wait. The seasons become acute. Jobs measured by the spin of the sun around our little blue orb.

You become a Godhead within your microcosm but also realise how small you are in the scheme of nature. A dichotomy of design.

I think I may have been a good father...........

Part 2 tomorrow

Gardening Facts

A sunflower is not just one flower.Both the fuzzy brown centre and the classic yellow petals are actually 1,000 – 2,000 individual flowers, held together on a single stalk.

There are more micro organisms in one teaspoon of soil than there are people on earth.It's aliiiiive! OK, in all seriousness, that fact might make you itchy, but microbes are important for keeping your soil full of nutrients.

Plants really do respond to sound.Talking to plants to help them grow is a well-known old wives' tale, but studies have shown vibration (like music, or perhaps even the sweet sound of your voice) can affect plant growth. 

A little baking soda can help you grow sweeter tomatoes.A regular sprinkling of this kitchen staple into your plant's soil can help reduce acidity, which sweetens up your crop.

Some of your favourite fruits are actually in the rose family.Apples, pears, peaches, cherries, raspberries, strawberries, and more are rosaceae, making them cousins to the long-stemmed Valentine's Day variety.

Breaking The Law

This is where I give you a ridiculous law, is it real 'Breaking the Law' or have I made

 it up 'faking the law'

In England, it's illegal to shake you rug in the street before 8am.

Breaking the Law or Faking the Law ?

The Trivial Top 10.

Today's top errmm 9

The presenters of BBC's longest running gardening programme, Gardeners World

Ken Burras (1968–1969) 

Percy Thrower (1969–1976)

Arthur Billitt (1976–1979)

Geoff Hamilton (1979–1996)

Geoffrey Smith (1980–1982)

Alan Titchmarsh (1996–2002)

Monty Don (2003–2008)

Toby Buckland (2008–2010)

Monty Don (2011 –)

Monty's done it twice !!

Breaking the Law.

So I asked if .....In England, it's illegal to shake you rug in the street before 8am?

As of 1839, it has also been against the law to beat or shake any carpet or rug in the street. You can shake your doormat, however, but only before 8am in the morning. 

It's 'Breaking the Law' 

Well done if you got it !!

Finish with a Song

As we've been talking about gardens, here's is Savage Garden, with Truly, Madly,

Deeply. Released in 1997 ( 20 years ago !)