92 year old Gardener

Watched GW last night , was it the last of the series ? They had an interesting article of a 92 year old who has tended two full allotment plots for over 40 years ! He was bright as a button and seemed to know vegetable gardening backwards ! Hope I can tend my garden for as long.

 

Yes Harry I saw it he was amazing as was the blind lady in her garden .

Yes last till Spring .


I really enjoyed last nights programme.

 

Yes ,we watched it last night, what an inspiration for us all, hope we are like that.

It was a shame it was the last show, still won't be long, Spring is just around the corner , time will pass quickly.

I used to love Geoff Hamilton, his programmes are what started my interest in gardening.

 

Yes I saw it too Harry,amazing chap.
We have allotments at the bottom of the garden and there's a gardener on there who's well over 90 too, used to come every day except Christmas day on his motorised bike, don't see him quite every day now as he's been quite ill but still very regular,rotavates his plot himself OH offered to do it for him but he wouldn't hear of it, more energy than me, his wife who's the same age comes and picks fruit when its harvest time,went down one day and he'd made us a gate for our plot to stop the rabbits, lovely man,when I saw allotment holder in Lincolnshire thought it was him, bit of a frisky old beggar too keeps asking me in his shed for a drink!!!!!

 

I have a long running theory. These people are the ones that don't surrender themselves to 'old age'. They are the ones that don't 'take it easy' just because someone said they should at their age, and therefore they continue to do what they enjoy for as long as they physically can.

When I was a kid, there was a local bloke who was a friend of my grandad and dad, who was well known locally as the best horseman in the area. He'd served during the war in the Signals, which is where my grandad became his friend, but this old chap had had a lot to do with the horses (I'm not sure if they actually still used horses in WW2 or if they just kept them for ceremonial purposes). Anyway, he had such a passion for horses, he set up his own informal training school for both horses and their owners, and that's how I got to know him when I was little. We had some horses and ponies, and my dad got this old chap to teach my sister and I how to look after them properly (and ride them like mentalists with no fear).

Years passed, and everyone drifted off as people do. I grew up and had long since given up my involvement in equestrian circles, and then a few years ago, my sister bought a couple of young horses, not yet broken in. She tried to do it herself, but didn't have the patience. I was asked to help her move them to guess where, the old chap's school. I couldn't believe it when we got there. I expected the old man to be a frail old chap by now, probably no longer actively involved in the front line hard work. How wrong I was. There was this chap, getting on for 90 years old, stood in the middle of a paddock with a young horse nearly twice his size, jumping around like a loony (the horse was I mean) because it didn't appreciate having a saddle put on for the first time.

Sadly the old chap died a couple of years after that, heart attack in his sleep we heard, but he'd done what he loved right up to the end. I can remember as a kid people telling him to slow down because he was 'getting on' and he'd just put them to shame for suggesting it and then just get on with it. Probably because of this attitude, he got to enjoy his life right til his last day.

 

My father in law is 92 and he only reduced to 10 poles from 20 about a year ago.

 

I can also see myself puttering along for a long time. Wish I could retire and start now.

 

good to know that there elderly that still go for gardening..

 

unlike many i think i will give up gardening in my old age...

 

I think, it is time for me to take a rest from gardening at the age of 70 I guess.
Just need relax by then in the garden that I made for a long time..
remembering the past while chillin' out in the garden..

 

But then what? You can only chill out for so long, then it gets boring

 

I can chill out to. but you still have to pull weeds, who's going to do that.