Many weeks ago Bernard started preparing our garden to receive vegetables and the garden is full of green things growing everywhere now. Although Annette and myself have always owned houses with a sizeable garden we have never grown any vegetables, after all Sainbury's was only around the corner and so growing our own now thanks to Bernard is indeed a steep learning curve for both of us.

This past week or so I have seen some of our local villagers wandering about with a small saw and returning later in the day with a bundle of straight looking branches tied into neat bunches and carrying them on their backs, on their way back to their country abode. "
This is how they get those long sticks to hold their tomatoes and runner beans I thought,"
but my further thoughts were "
where on earth did they get them from"
, I have never seen trees that have branches that straight or small trees that could be felled to do the job of supporting beans and tommies.

So yesterday Bernard called around at about 10 o'clock which is early for him and we performed the usual greeting with shaking hands either outside our property or within our property and Bernard uttered the words "
mechanizi"
and pointed at the chain saw and then pointed at the many trees surrounding our 4½ deka garden. "
OK Bernard"
I retorted and off we ventured into the field and he pointed at a group of small trees and for me to cut them down. Within only seconds of me starting up the saw and pointing it at the first tree he was saying "
ne, ne,"
and telling me that I was cutting the trees in the wrong place and holding the chain saw on the wrong side of the tree. These trees were fairly solid and about 3 inches diameter and cutting them down on the wrong side would have meant that they would have in fact have landed on one or both of us when they were cut all the way through.

Whilst walking around the edge of the field he noticed the ventilation pipe for the septic tank, these he didn't recognise I guess because he has a 'dunny' in the garden like many of the gardens in our village and no ventilation shaft coming from it. He pointed at the ventilation pipe and asked what it was for and so it was my duty to simulate using a toilet so he knew understood the use for the pipe, this was followed by him saying "
da, da, da"
and "
ha, ha, ha."


Another day learning the Bulgarian way of life, bliss!!

da da da and ha ha ha great story we relate to.
Just the other day our neighbour was running up and down the garden because she wanted sticks for her beans and wanted us to cut our trees down for her and expected us too. we told her no because they are all wanted and she had had the the branches and twigs when they were all trimed earlier in the year but when it come to her beans or our fruit no competition it seems we won on the trees lost on the bundle of canes we gave her!

When we first established the vege garden we used to use the canes, but got tired of sourcing them every year, so purchased about 60, 1cm dia metal pipes, 2 metres long, painted each one and that's what we use every year. We store them in the barn when not in use and it takes 20-30 minutes to instal them when needed.

yes these are a good investment we have them too so does the neighbours! the garden does feel really fresh today after the lovely rain yesterday. amazing how every thing turns green so fast. It has driven the runner beans on too running for their life they are. I have grown them on rose arches this year and it is working a treat so far so good. Happy gardening

We use the canes that you are talking about which the Bulgarians use. We, too, used to wonder why locals used the trunks (if you can call them that) which they chopped from a weed which grows very tall very quickly and looks a bit like the walnut tree leaves. They then chopped off all the leaves. We had inherited a lot of canes so it wasn't until recently when these had rotted that the penny dropped. They were used for tomatoes etc. Here is a pic of ours holding up our tomatoes which my Hero foraged around the verges in the village.

Itchy I am loosing you Are you not blogging any more