Vasili's Garden Episodes
When I Retire!
I always dream about the day I retire, what I would do, where I will be…
First I said it would be at 35 - who was I Kidding?
Then I thought maybe there’s a chance by 40?
Well didn’t 40 come and go faster than the last Melbourne cup!
But when I do retire, which would be more than likely around 65-70, I want to spend my days in the garden just like Angelo in Chirnside Park.
How cool would it be to wake up in the morning, go for your morning stroll then straight into the gardening for some good garden therapy.
I love my family just like everyone else, and I wish nothing more than good health and happiness for everyone, but lets be honest now, having a wonderful productive garden does not only bring you pleasure for effort you put into the garden, it also opens the door to many of other life’s experience that you would otherwise never get to enjoy.
What am I talking about, you ask?
Well let’s say for instance your garden has 5 fruit trees, an apple, lemon, nectarine, peach and a fig, you also have a hot house that is choca block full of tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, capsicums and so on.
Plus you have the outside garden which you’ve planted out with snake beans, stringless beans that were 3mtrs tall, another 20 tomato plants that are full of produce, 2 rows of onions, 40 to 50 plants of strawberries, Amaranth and portulaca growing wild everywhere and a herb garden that has enough varieties that you could open your own herbal company.
Plus a giant zucchini plant to blow your mind away.
All this at the rear of the property!
Now for the front garden, you have a couple of olive trees with lots wonderful annual s, perennials and roses everywhere, the back verandah is shaded by a plum and nectarine tree offering crispy fresh air on a hot summers day and all along the shaded side of the house you have over 200 orchids lined up.
Let’s not forget the 27,000litres of water storage too.
Imagine all this?
Well guess what, that’s exactly what Angelo has in his garden out in Chirnside Park, everything is so clean and fresh that I had to ask his wife Margarita whether she helps too.
“Oh, no, no, no” she says,
“That’s Angelo’s baby, no one is allowed to touch anything, if you want something to eat, you must ask Angelo.”
“He looks after the plants like they are his babies”
And what a wonderful job he does too I must say so myself.
Angelo is so proud of his garden that he even pitched up a tent in his back yard so that he can be closer to his plants when he sleeps.
Huh?
Well what can I say other than that it takes a special kind of person to do something like that and something tells me that I’ll probably be doing the same thing when I retire.
Having a garden like Angelo, and it doesn’t have to be as big as Angelo’s, brings family and friends together every time, people love to enjoy fresh produce with a glass of home made wine and talk about how well everything has grown and how good it tastes.
Let it be known that the best celebrations have and will always be held in the garden, not the house.
The house is for… um… well the house is there to show off, but the garden is there for life, your life, so get out there and enjoy.
Maresi!
Andrew Stefanis from Vasili's Garden on Vimeo.
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