PADDOCK TO PLATE IN ONE DAY

Last Wednesday morning we didn't do gardening in the normal way. Instead we headed off with our trailers to pick up peastraw for $2.50 a bale. As I looked in the rear-view mirror as we hurtled down the red-dust road just out of Callington, a movie came to mind, about trucking in America, and that line where one bloke radios to another and says "10,4 big buddy, looks like we got ourselves a convoy" !

One by one we loaded cars and trailers with bales that were spread, at times, so far apart it was quite a walk in between. I said "hop in the trailer and I'll drive you up to the next bale" but Lou and Glenys looked into my trailer and, for some reason, decided that being able to see the ground through the bottom of the trailer signified a risky proposition and kept on walking. People these days have no guts !

After all this hot and dusty work it was time to escape to cool and green Bridgewater, where Kathy, who didn't need any more peastraw, had been preparing an end-of-year lunch for the rest of us. We exchanged our mostly home-grown gifts, like these lovely bunches of dried lavendar from Glenys' garden. It was Glenys' beautiful garden that I was watering recently and wrote about at the time.

We won't be meeting again on Wednesdays until the end of the school holidays. It has been the best year that I can remember, of this gardening group, and it's all because of our newest members, Kathy and Glenys. One night in 2006 I handed out some little flyers that Sally and I had made, at a Soil Association meeting to try to find 2 new members, when 2 past members left and reduced us to 3. I only handed them to women who I thought looked young and energetic enough to participate in what we do. A week or two later there were 2 responses. Kathy, a Canadian, living at Bridgewater said she didn't even own a spade but wanted to start a vegie garden. Hmm. no experience - I didn't think she would be hard-core enough. Then there was Glenys, who needed some help and ideas also with growing vegetables but didn't want to commit to every Wednesday. Hmm. I didn't think she would last long.

Kathy now spends weekends buying tools and turning compost and can be seen most week-days carrying pails of coffee-grounds, which she collects from organic cafes, down the mall for her compost heaps ! And Glenys has become fully committed and an inspiration with her artistic bent and gardening skill. So, here's to the 5 of us and may we have many happy years in each other's gardens in the years to come.