Great to meet you Rosie, and thanks for your help in getting the plants down to the Levels and thanks to everybody else for their kind comments - just pleased to be able to help.
We should see if we can organise a way of getting plants from A to B. If members of this forum were willing to help be part of a relay of transport, we might be able to cover most areas. So even if people can't donate plants, they could really help by doing a leg of the relay - perhaps as part of one of their normal journeys? So, I quite often go up and down the M4, so I could meet people and pick up plants at one junction, then perhaps deliver to someone else at another.... you get the idea. I know it would take a bit of organising, but do people think it might work?
OOOH, what a great effort, Lizzie and Rosie. But I'm sad now The seed collection doesn't look half so impressive! However, I think we could be up to 300 packets, so I am off to book the courier. Isn't it sad taht you can book a courier to collect from your house, to take elsewhere, cheaper than using Royal Mail?
I'm kind of hoping, (and have asked Daniel), whether we could get a half page or so in the mags to explain what we are are doing, and to ask for more help. There must be thousands of readers who never use the forum, and also many forum members who never look at this thread. The mag (and a mention on the tv programme, do I dare ask?) could really help, and may get a courier company involved. At least one courier company in this country must have some interest in gardening, or see an advantage to be gained in aiding a genuine British effort to help others, without monetary donations being made?
It is so easy to give a few pounds here or there. But where does it go? How is it spent? There are already funds set up to help the worst affected.But that is for their houses, where insurance companies have reneged or found clauses to avoid payment.And in many cases, people will not be able to restore their houses to the previous standard for many years. Clearing, cleaning and restoring a house after such conditions is time-consuming, de-moralising, slow whilst drying out, and very expensive.
A few cheery pots of colourful plants may not sound much to many people in such circumstances, and perhaps not everyone in those circumstances would want them, as many may not be 'gardeners', but I am sure that the thought and effort that has been put in by members of this thread cannot fail to be appreciated, even by the non-gardeners of the areas affected. We could maybe even initiate a few more!
I can imagine that in leaving the front door of my house, where I am living in damp, with a minimum of furniture, having to re-stock my kitchen cupboards,my wardrobe is ruined and life is generally crap, and likely to be so for the forseeable future, and I haven't even yet contemplated the wreckage of my garden, a cheery pot of plants to greet me on the way out and back in again, might at least make me smile again, for at least 30 seconds, whilst I remove that dead flower, watch the bee, hoverfly or butterfly at work, and remember that what affected me, possibly totally destroyed their home, and yet, they are going about things as normal, and my little pot may be be helping them to rebuild their lives.
For people, unfortunately, Money is at the top of our food chain. But for the little animals at the bottom, that keep us 'tops' alive, and that we use and take from, we can do something. And in so doing, we can 'take' form them the pleasure of knowing that life goes on. Without money, or luxuries, or extras. A pot outside our door gives pleasure to ourselves, initially in it's colour, brightness, hardiness, and a feeling that life goes on, just from the plants themselves. But if you have little else to see in your ruined garden, maybe every little insect, bird, bug, spider that you attract can take on more meaning?
I am only surmising, and everyone is different.However, I think that, even without our help, people may now take their surroundings more seriously than before. I am not saying that this flooding has been a good thing, but weather is, without a doubt, changing at a faster rate than was predicted. I have tried to plan my days around 'good weather' or bad. The predictions rarely fit, and on hearing the weather on the news hourly, it NEVER fits. We all need to adjust and be ready for the worst that can come. For the last 3 yrs, I have had the best tans of my life by mid-April, my birthday, in Ayrshire, Sco
GJ - very well put! Thanks for contacting Daniel - I really do hope we can get some coverage. I sent an email through the website a few weeks ago, but am not sure if it landed anywhere - I didn't get an acknowledgement so perhaps it dissolved in the ether.
By the way, GJ, your post got cut off just after 'Ayrshire'.... there must be a word limit!
Lizzie's plants are now resting by my door, ready for the next leg of their relay on Friday. I'll fleece them tonight if it looks chilly!
Posts
Nut, ditto
LOOK AT THIS!!! Lizzie has given us all these plants! I'm taking them down the M5 on Friday and handing them over to the local garden coordinator.
BRILLIANT!
Rosie & Lizzie, top ladies
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Nice one Lizzie
Great to meet you Rosie, and thanks for your help in getting the plants down to the Levels and thanks to everybody else for their kind comments - just pleased to be able to help.
We should see if we can organise a way of getting plants from A to B. If members of this forum were willing to help be part of a relay of transport, we might be able to cover most areas. So even if people can't donate plants, they could really help by doing a leg of the relay - perhaps as part of one of their normal journeys? So, I quite often go up and down the M4, so I could meet people and pick up plants at one junction, then perhaps deliver to someone else at another.... you get the idea. I know it would take a bit of organising, but do people think it might work?
Great to meet you too, Lizzie - and thank you again!
OOOH, what a great effort, Lizzie and Rosie. But I'm sad now
The seed collection doesn't look half so impressive! However, I think we could be up to 300 packets, so I am off to book the courier. Isn't it sad taht you can book a courier to collect from your house, to take elsewhere, cheaper than using Royal Mail?
I'm kind of hoping, (and have asked Daniel), whether we could get a half page or so in the mags to explain what we are are doing, and to ask for more help. There must be thousands of readers who never use the forum, and also many forum members who never look at this thread. The mag (and a mention on the tv programme, do I dare ask?) could really help, and may get a courier company involved. At least one courier company in this country must have some interest in gardening, or see an advantage to be gained in aiding a genuine British effort to help others, without monetary donations being made?
It is so easy to give a few pounds here or there. But where does it go? How is it spent? There are already funds set up to help the worst affected.But that is for their houses, where insurance companies have reneged or found clauses to avoid payment.And in many cases, people will not be able to restore their houses to the previous standard for many years. Clearing, cleaning and restoring a house after such conditions is time-consuming, de-moralising, slow whilst drying out, and very expensive.
A few cheery pots of colourful plants may not sound much to many people in such circumstances, and perhaps not everyone in those circumstances would want them, as many may not be 'gardeners', but I am sure that the thought and effort that has been put in by members of this thread cannot fail to be appreciated, even by the non-gardeners of the areas affected. We could maybe even initiate a few more!
I can imagine that in leaving the front door of my house, where I am living in damp, with a minimum of furniture, having to re-stock my kitchen cupboards,my wardrobe is ruined and life is generally crap, and likely to be so for the forseeable future, and I haven't even yet contemplated the wreckage of my garden, a cheery pot of plants to greet me on the way out and back in again, might at least make me smile again, for at least 30 seconds, whilst I remove that dead flower, watch the bee, hoverfly or butterfly at work, and remember that what affected me, possibly totally destroyed their home, and yet, they are going about things as normal, and my little pot may be be helping them to rebuild their lives.
For people, unfortunately, Money is at the top of our food chain. But for the little animals at the bottom, that keep us 'tops' alive, and that we use and take from, we can do something. And in so doing, we can 'take' form them the pleasure of knowing that life goes on. Without money, or luxuries, or extras. A pot outside our door gives pleasure to ourselves, initially in it's colour, brightness, hardiness, and a feeling that life goes on, just from the plants themselves. But if you have little else to see in your ruined garden, maybe every little insect, bird, bug, spider that you attract can take on more meaning?
I am only surmising, and everyone is different.However, I think that, even without our help, people may now take their surroundings more seriously than before. I am not saying that this flooding has been a good thing, but weather is, without a doubt, changing at a faster rate than was predicted. I have tried to plan my days around 'good weather' or bad. The predictions rarely fit, and on hearing the weather on the news hourly, it NEVER fits. We all need to adjust and be ready for the worst that can come. For the last 3 yrs, I have had the best tans of my life by mid-April, my birthday, in Ayrshire, Sco
GJ - very well put! Thanks for contacting Daniel - I really do hope we can get some coverage. I sent an email through the website a few weeks ago, but am not sure if it landed anywhere - I didn't get an acknowledgement so perhaps it dissolved in the ether.
By the way, GJ, your post got cut off just after 'Ayrshire'.... there must be a word limit!
Lizzie's plants are now resting by my door, ready for the next leg of their relay on Friday. I'll fleece them tonight if it looks chilly!