Pots and Cans

Pots and Cans

Friday, June 29, 2012

CONFESSIONS


I have 2 confessions to make – firstly, I’ve got hooked on Groupon.  It’s true.  I am a Groupon junkie.    I must have comfort bras, coloured kitchen knives or a Heston Blumenthal digital jug.  Life as I know it wouldn’t be complete without these things.  The marketing men have won.  Whatever magic formula they’ve used to infiltrate the mass mentality has worked a treat and now I’m hooked along with the other millions of customers who rush to their PCs every morning desperate for their daily Groupon ‘fix’.

My addiction is in its infancy.  So far, purchases include a night out for 6 people at the local Greyhound Stadium, (£26) a tour of Ringwood Brewery (£22 and lots of free beer), carpet cleaning (£24) and a 30 minute sports massage (£10) for my gammy leg.  Nothing wrong with that, it’s only a mere £82 you say.  They’re all things I probably would have spent money on anyway is what my inner voice tells me in order to justify this frivolous expenditure on otherwise needless things. 

I recently heard a story in the office of how Groupon addictions can get wildly out of control. It sent shivers through my purse but let’s get back to the story.  A girl’s mother, and compulsive shopper by the sounds of it, had slowly fallen under the Groupon spell.  She’d got to the stage where she’d pretty much buy anything and everything and over time, her house turned into one of those horror stories you see on TV Hoarders.  You couldn’t move for Groupon clutter.  It got so bad she tried to off load some of the more useful items on Ebay but in the end had to donate the lot to a charity shop.  Happy ending – yes, she did re-discover her lounge but sadly ended up several hundred pounds in debt.  Take heed all you other Groupon junkies out there as this could easily be you after a few months! 

Good job Groupon doesn’t have more gardening related offers otherwise by now I’d have a shed full of brightly coloured trowels, comfort knee pads or an Alan Titchmarsh digital compost measuring jug – and all those other relatively useless gardening items you just can’t live without.  (I’m not saying that Alan’s a relatively useless gardener as he’s the bee’s knees.  He’s more than welcome to swing by for a cup of tea and a spot of dead-heading any time!)

Second confession – I forgot to tell the world via ‘el bloggo’ that I’d picked our first raspberry. 



In fact, three have been picked so far and a few more green ones are hanging around ready for a bit of sunshine ripening.  Raspberries are strawberry’s hairier cousins (like Kate Moss before Epi-lady), beginning life as a set of bare twigs called ‘canes’ but ending up as tall, sprawling shrubs around 2-3 feet high.  Allow plenty of space when planting your raspberry canes and chose their final spot with care as they can take over a plot if allowed to run rampant.

We’ve planted ours in what was the original herb garden, one of the smaller raised beds where they get plenty of sunshine and shelter from winds.  Important as raspberries don’t like wind!  Being a fairly organic gardener, they’ve not been treated with anything other than a good helping of fruit & veg compost before planting.  All they need is sunshine which sadly can’t be purchased online.

And remember novice gardeners, if someone asks to see your hairy raspberry it’s not because they’ve got an interest in fruit growing!!

More about growing raspberries on the RHS web site http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Grow-Your-Own/Fruit-A-to-Z/Raspberries

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