Ask Grandma
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Those of us adults who have grandparents can count ourselves lucky!
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Grandparents give us an incredible reference point - and to a time when information came via people you talked to and experience came through trial and error.
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My grandma, Olive Wade, retired from farming to Woolgoolga in 1972 and my grandfather died soon after. This left grandma on her own to build a new home and establish a new life, new friends and a vegetable garden which she has retained for over 40 years. I figure 40 years gardening makes you an expert!
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So when I could be goofing around on google, I try to discipline myself instead to ring grandma as my first port of call. And the great thing about talking to grandma is she talks commonsense. Suddenly, gardening becomes easy. A call with grandma typically goes like this:
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ME: Grandma, when should I stake my tomatoes?
GRANDMA: When they begin to fall over.
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ME: Grandma, how will I know when the guavas are ripe?
GRANDMA: When the birds come to eat them.
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ME: Grandma, I had a great crop of figs last year, and then some insect came and started eating them!!!
GRANDMA: Yes, that happens sometimes.
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