. . . and she surprised me. I know I got the better end of the deal.
Actually, my daughter brokered this trade for me. My daughter happened to be walking by the neighbor's house one day and mentioned how much I loved one of her plants. This lovely and sweet lady offered to trade me for one of mine.
The plan had been to trade primrose plants. I had the 3 primrose plants that I bought on Super Bowl Sunday, an orange-y, ruffly primrose. What she had that I wanted was a double blossom baby pink primrose.
So I got my trade all potted up and ready. What she gave to our family was the primrose I wanted, plus a Japanese primrose, some salad burnet, plus some purple broccoli and parsley that she started from seed. I have to say, I'm embarrassed by my lack of generosity.
This neighbor is known for her fabulous flower, fruit and veggie, and perennial garden. My thumb is somewhere near the brownish end of the green spectrum in comparison. If she's willing to teach me, perhaps I could become a better gardener. In any case, it's always nice to get to know someone with whom I share a hobby.
You could always stop by with a plate of cookies or something like that, and tell her how much you appreciate her generosity.
ReplyDelete- Tina
Hi Tina,
Deletethat's a wonderful idea! Thank you!
We also got the better end of an exchange recently. Mangoes are very expensive here, almost $4 each for local varieties. I gave some of our garden greens, tatsoi, mustard cabbage, collards and Chinese spinach, to our neighbor's mother who was visiting recently, and she returned with a huge bag of delicious mangoes. Mangoes are gold these days because unlike the old days hardly anyone has a mango tree in their yard. We love mangoes and buy it frozen at Costco, but of course nothing like fresh mangoes.
ReplyDeleteLaura
Hi Laura,
Deletethat's a great trade. While you may have gotten the better end for the trade monetarily (magpies being expensive), your neighbor likely really appreciated the organically-grown fresh garden greens. And to her, the mangoes were excess. Will they keep in the refrigerator for a while, or will you need to chop and freeze them?
We shared some with our grandson who loves mangoes, and ate one a day. Some were on the green side but we refrigerated all anyway and ate the ripest first. Frozen mangoes can be mushy, which I don't mind because I spread it on toast with peanut butter, in place of jam. I made a second batch of your delicious peanut butter granola 🙂 my husband loves your recipe too.
DeleteLaura
I occasionally trade plants with neighbors, but my favorite person to exchange plants with moved across the country. However, I still send her pictures of "her" plants in our yard.
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteThat's so sweet. I bet your former neighbor enjoys seeing photos of the plants she once gave to you.
I think your neighbor was deligted to share her garden bounty with you--perhaps the best gift you could give her would be to ask her to share her knowledge. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Kris,
DeletePerhaps you're right. Her gardening knowledge is vast. If I possessed that much knowledge on one subject, I'd like to be able to share it with others.