we've just come back from the plot, please try to read this with a thick, in both terms, lancashire accent
"ee it makes a change to see a woman who knows the difference between a vegetable and a weed "
I'm 54, been growing veg all my life and this condescending idiot quite upset me, even though i know better
I ignored him but feel I should ve said something, he's only about 10 years older than me, for goodness sake !!! :-\
Tell him to get on to the Internet to A4All (bet he doesn't even know how to surf ;)) - he'll soon see how many of us know quite a bit about gardening and that we're not afraid to get our hands dirty either ::) ::) ::). I just hate sexist talk - of any kind >:(.
Tricia
;D ;D ;D >:(
I know! My experience is that loads of men don't know the difference between weeds and other things too!
I just smile and let the plot do the talking, unfortunately at the moment it says..
"Idle git here, not a clue what she is doing!"
There is always next year...
;)
Quote from: katynewbie on October 29, 2006, 19:01:15
I just smile and let the plot do the talking
good one katy 8)
had to do a lot of grinning the first year, not
so much the second ;)
give it time scousers ::)
we've been on the plots for 11 years, just didn't have much to do with the bowling club, in our 'lets be nice to everone'mood, we've started giving them a cuppa when we have one, it means we get the lot, some are funny, some try to shock, like kids, and a couple of them talk to ray and not me, I thought I'd got over it all but it still bugs me, learning a lot about myself and my ability to bite my tongue :-X
ALWAYS having 'advice' about what I should be doing instead of what I am doing........I smile sweetly and just get on in my own way.The latest was overheard recently after erecting my invertibrate habitat (which I am quite proud of) "what the b****y hell is she up to now?" Don't care, though, my plot is still colourful with marigolds and dahlias + veg and I love it.
(http://www.freesmileys.org/emo/chores001.gif) (http://www.freesmileys.org)
you know maggie, if we swopped neighbours for a day we probably wouldn't notice the difference lol
typical convo (re cluster sown onions this time)
tony: you really want to separate them onions
me: oh this is experimental tony, you can say I told you so next year (maidenly laugh)
tony: (deep sigh) it's a waste of onion seed
me: shall I mulch them some more then you won't have to see them ::)
(http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/supersprout/smilies/10_5_134v1.gif)
Just tell the knockers that most of the third world would starve if it wasn't for the 'ladies' getting their hands dirty.
What a bloody cheek to say that, you should have aimed a spud at him right on target. M C P that he is. >:(
He's obviously forgotten about the 'Land Girls'. Who did he think was looking after the veggies when the men were off to war! ::)
Reading your post ManicScouser, he could actually be giving you a complement. Men of his generation have a way of putting things across which is tied to how they were brought up as children in the 30's/40's. and probably reflect the attitudes of their parents.
My dad (would have been in his 70's) genuinely believed women couldn't handle financial affairs, it was too difficult. It was what his dad taught him. The irony is that he only had a daughter who got a degree in engineering and since his death, has unravelled the details of his financials from a load of bits of paper in a tin box.
He, and some of his cronies often came out with odd statements that were actually intended as complements as they were genuinely aware that women are capable, it just wasn't what they were brought up to think. Bit like finding out the world isn't t flat. At least your chap was prepared to acknowlege your skill however ineptly rather than refusing to change long held beliefs.
I was the allotments secretary for a while, loads of old giffers, won 'em round slowly, but did have to learn to see their world through their eyes first. As I get older I'm beginning to feel sympathy as I struggle to understand "yoof" culture. takes all sorts.
Cheers
it was the way he slagged his wife off after that, I tried to explain that he probably got clean, ironed clothes and a nicely ran house but he still had a go at her, in the end I just said she must have something or he wouldn't still be with her, I rather think it's the other way round ;)
Quote"ee it makes a change to see a woman who knows the difference between a vegetable and a weed "
...
I wonder how many times his ma served him Sunday roast with dock roots and ground elder?
(As you do, of course, if you're the regular kind of woman that manicscousers' plot neighbour seems to know?)
;D
that's brilliant, thanks, made me laugh !!
Quote from: manicscousers on October 29, 2006, 15:51:27
we've just come back from the plot, please try to read this with a thick, in both terms, lancashire accent
"ee it makes a change to see a woman who knows the difference between a vegetable and a weed "
I'm 54, been growing veg all my life and this condescending idiot quite upset me, even though i know better
I ignored him but feel I should ve said something, he's only about 10 years older than me, for goodness sake !!! :-\
and you say "yes, it is a great asset to be able to tell the difference, would you like me to say which one you are sir?" ;D
roflmao triffid and calendula, why can't I ever think up a good retort like that at the time? >:( ;D
Although I'm a male, and coming up 30 :( a few of the older plot holders at my site are also a little " you don't wanna do it like that" but you just have to smile and say "yes I was going to try that, maybe i shall have a go next year" It always seems to cheers them up! Guess they are just trying to be helpful.
no need for them to be quite so rude to you though.
Regards
Matt
Old Jacks line to me is......'not wanting to teach you how to suck egss, but the way I do it is.....' I don't mind at all, he is a love and I just blow raspberries and we laugh. A few of the oldies were suprised by the amount of work I do on the plot and the quantity and quality of the fruit and veg I produced as our site is suffering from a lot of 'seemed like a good idea at the time' - dig some, sow a few seeds, don't weed, seedlings die, they give up. Now some of the buggers ask me advice!!
Leading by example is always the best way.... we are getting a much better (more active) class of gardener these last few years and yes a lot of them are women...good on them I say!
8)
Saddad (Male aged 45!)
luckily everyone else is fine and this man's not actually on the allotments, he's from the bowling green, we've started giving them cuppas and having a good laugh with them, he's not there all the time so i'm just evading him when I can :D
Ground Elder is definitely edible Triffid... not that I'd want to put it to the test!
;D
the Romans (curse them!) are supposed to have introduced it as a vegetable.
After reading this I was curious to see how the "old boys" would be towards me but I have to say that everyone I've met so far has been friendly, helpful and ready to offer advice. I've also had a big bag of beetroot and "a coupla of leeks for your dinner" two weeks running! But it's early days and I haven't grown anything yet...
So far I'm grateful for any advice and as most of it's coming from someone who's had his plot for 45 years I'm listening to every word!
his name's not eric, is it, he's the one we all turn to, been there for 40 years and waits to be asked, he's brilliant !
Think EJ has got it right - never let them think you are "bothered" ;) Mind you 20+ years ago it was worse and it was Mr W who got the sarcy comments about "having to bring the wife along" which he totally ignored. They were nearer the truth than they knew tho as it really was a case of if you can't beat them join them. But now that there are so many women on the site they wouldn't dare say a word as our plots speak for themselves!!
when i first got my plot I know the old boys said 'another two week wonder' ::)
now 7 years on they ask me for advise,smiling sweetly all these years seems to have done the trick ;D
if i had a pound for every time an old boy says 'you grow a lot of flowers,you can't eat them'(oh yes you can :P) i would be a very rich woman,i don't have a lot of pests on my plot because the flowers bring the good bugs in.
women garden differently to men, you can always spot a woman's allotment,its almost always pretty ;D ;D/shades x
Bless hey! Being of sound mind etc. when I stupidly asked a bloke if his wife ever came to the lottie I guess I deseved the answer. "Ladies dont come here" Oh well another one bites the dust!!!!!
Too right Angleshades, mine had a low hedge at the front of hebe which had lovely little flowers, even though I clipped it to keep it neat. I grew sweet peas amongst my runner beans and Rainbow chard.
The chard was the subject of much discussion, being a new fangled food crop.
Of course, you can spot a man's plot by the obsessively straight lines and total absence of weeds between crops.
Having dropped that grenade, I shall retreat to a tele conference
Quote from: saddad on November 09, 2006, 21:34:05
Ground Elder is definitely edible Triffid... not that I'd want to put it to the test!
;D
;D
Never said it wasn't edible, Saddad ;) ...
but to quote the immortal lines from Crocodile Dundee (about bush tucker):
'Can you really eat that?'
'You can live on it... but it tastes like s**t.'
" Needs Garlic!"
;D
Well - i've had nothing but friendliness shown to me so far!
One chap came over to me on Thursday and said "I hear the hinges on your shed are dodgy - would you like me to fix them?" - and he promptly did! What a gent! - he'd bought all his stuff along with him just in case I was about! :)
...mind you - I think my no-dig organic beds might raide the odd eyebrow!
But nothing but welcomes so far!
Louisewomble
the 'oldies on the plot are brill, it's the only one of the others from the fringes( the bowling green) that's the problem, found out, he's everybody's problem, men and women, feel better :D
I LOVE being a woman allotment holder and it was even MORE enjoyable when I was the Secretary of the Allotment Association!
My neighbours and long-term lottie holders (upwards of 70yrs and of all species and international denominations) took a while to be convinced that someone with t*ts can possibly know how to grow sweetcorn and borlottii beans.
I haven't managed to convince them that a trench next to my shed could possibly grow watercress next year ... but hey ho! Dario is bringing me a bottle of damson wine tomorrow - no doubt to make up for me being a 'spinster'!!