The Frantic Gardeners’ Blog

And we are being very sparing with the water. Some bad news for the brassicas

well, we have managed to get some of the weeding done. the sweetcorn are being a bit wierd. The pollen bit is ready way before the cobs tassles are there to be pollinated, so not holding out a great deal of hope. none of the french beans in the 3 sisters bit seem to have germinatd [luckilly we have some elsewhere!] SOme baby squashlets, which I hope have time to grow.

At the entrance to the veg bed is a fig, which is covered in fruits - yummy!!

This seems to have done well. I have kept it nicely weeded, the onions are swelling up well, and will soon be dying back and ready to dry. A lot of the brassicas look good, just apart from the wok brok, there doesn’t actually seem to be much going on! certainly no heads forming. Whats going on their then? Some strawbs though - yummy!

i am more frantic at the possibility of being less frantic. this year in this garden may be an alpha and omega. yes, it is that dreaded redundancy word.

its a word i never expected to hear applied to me, after all i do what was the last ’safe’ job, you would have thought, we can get struck off, we can die and we can retire. I don’t even have any redundancy insurance - though I have everything else. my financial advisor never thought it worth while either.

my notice of job at risk came through the letterbox this morning. Of the 8 consultants that work in my field in my hospital, they plan to make 2 redundant, as the NHS is ‘in recession’ [the chief execs words - obviously not Patricia Hewitts], and obstetrics makes a loss - a huge loss - due to the incomprehensible tariff.

there are no jobs for consultants at the moment [well very scanty, as obstetrics makes a loss] and we don’t get employed as anything else, as out of the training grades. so I either stop being a doctor, or I emigrate.

WTF ‘best year ever for the NHS’