Text b Plant a Country Garden

Consider the headline of the text. Then read the text to find out:

- the image of a true country garden in the author’s point of view;

- the examples of rural homes;

- the best place for growing food crops;

- the author’s experience in plant growing.

In many parts of Britain there are long waiting lists for allotments, yet a great number of productive gardens have been lost as former farmhouses, cottages and buildings have been sold and the land around them put down to grass, spacious parking areas and patios with perhaps a few tubs of flowers. I long to see some of this land used as it was until 40-50 years ago, for growing vegetables and fruit with flower borders brimful of bloom and usually a few chickens and a hive or two of bees about the place. That's a true cottage garden rather than the chocolate box image created by romantic artists.

I could take you to any number of rural homes, converted into one house from two or three cottages, where the surrounding land has been made into one block, providing ample scope for a good-sized garden even after making way for a double or triple garage, roomy play area for the children and space for sitting out for al fresco meals and relaxing. After grass and rubbish has been cleared there is often very good soil that has been cultivated and nourished with farmyard manure over many years.

There is great enthusiasm at present for growing vegetables in containers and this can be very helpful if you have a small backyard or plot. However most crops will grow far more successfully when planted direct into the ground so if possible, avoid tubs other than perhaps for tomatoes placed against a warm, south-facing wall. For me the most important part of any garden is the part where food crops will be grown. Where possible this should be in an open sunny position, away from trees that can take light and whose roots will compete for nutrients in the soil. There should also be shelter from cold winds or you may need to put up a windbreak.

In a country garden I like to see wooden fences and gates, rustic frames and archways to support climbing plants and rustic benches for sitting out. Gravel and brick look good for paths, which will blend in much more quickly if low-growing plants are put in to spill over and soften the edges.

I grow a lot of plants to attract wildlife. Evergreen shrubs give colour in the garden all year, privacy for sitting outside, shelter from cold winds, nesting sites and roosting places for the birds. I made two informal ponds where frogs very soon arrived to breed, birds drink and bathe in the shallow edges and ladybirds, hoverflies and other aphid-eating insects are attracted by patches of the poached egg flower limnanthes. Tall plants of common fennel are another of their favourites, while lavender, thyme and marjoram are among herbs that also attract bees and other pollinating insects. A true country garden should not be too tidy a place, but have informal areas where flowers such as the Welsh poppy are allowed to self-seed in a random manner, small creatures can hide in climbing plants or ground cover and you can sit, cast care away, breathe in the scent of the flowers and watch bees, butterflies and birds.

(Simon Devin “Home Farmer”, April 2010)

Practice 1. Look through the text to find out who this text is intended for:

1) general readers;

2) students in agronomy;

3) professional agronomists.

Practice 2. Re-read the text and concentrate on discovering the author’s main idea. Select the statement which best expresses the author’s main idea.

1. Growing vegetables in containers can be very helpful if you have a small backyard or plot.

2. In many parts of Britain there are long waiting lists for allotments.

3. A true country garden is far from the chocolate box image created by romantic artists.

Practice 3. Re-arrange the sentences in a logical order and write a summary of the article.

1. For me the most important part of any garden is the part where food crops will be grown.

2. I long to see some of this land used as it was until 40-50 years ago.

3. I made two informal ponds where frogs very soon arrived to breed, birds drink and bathe in the shallow edges.

4. After grass and rubbish has been cleared there is often very good soil that has been cultivated and nourished with farmyard manure over many years.

Practice 4. Express your opinion about the author’s approach to planting a country garden. Support or oppose the author’s point of view.

Practice 5. In pairs discuss the following questions:

- if your groupmate or his/her family have a garden;

- what they grow there;

- if there are some flowers there, what they are;

- what his/her duties in the garden are;

- if he/she likes working in the garden;

- what he/she likes doing best.

Practice 6. Make a review of the article (use essential vocabulary from Appendix 2 on p. 70)

Practice 7. Make a report about a true British country garden as if you were a journalist (use the information from the article).

Text C

“Strawberry Starters”

Write a letter to your friend in which tell him/ her what interesting things you’ve learnt from one of these texts (see Appendix 3 on p. 72)

Strawberries are small and delicate looking but are as tough as old boots. The truth of this little sunshine capturing factory is that it produces flowers and fruit in the teeth of the harshest weather. With good management you can have fruit from the early summer right through to autumn, they respond to all sorts of soil conditions and there are so many hundreds of varieties that everyone should do well with at least one of them.

Strawberries get their name from the fact they were traditionally grown with straw under the leaves so that the fruit would not rest on the soil and become spoiled by the mud. The straw also makes for an excellent deterrent against slugs and snails. They're also grown in pots for the same reason, with the fruit dangling over the side or resting on pebbles. You can also use strawberry mats, which are a bit like plastic beer mats, only bigger. A strawberry mat is a brilliant way of controlling molluscs. Strawberries are best grown in a sunny position with good drainage. Being very hardy plants they will easily live through the winter with few problems, but new growth in the spring seems to be more susceptible to frost. They don't particularly like wet soil, so you should mix in a lot of grit to keep the water at bay. (Chris Southall “Home Farmer”, May 2010)

“Local Blossoms”*

A graceful bouquet of flowers makes the perfect accompaniment to a meal of local foods, but it is worth considering where the beauty that graces our vases comes from and how they are grown. You have probably heard that the average supermarket food has traveled 1500 miles, but did you know that the average flowers you buy at the florist shop have traveled 2500 miles?

About three-fourths of the flowers sold in the United States are imported, the majority arriving from greenhouses in South American countries like Peru and Ecuador. After a stopover in Miami, most flowers continue their trip either by plane or refrigerated truck to a wholesaler and then on to a florist shop. Sounds like a lot of oil for roses to drink just to reach your sweetheart. As with food, chemicals are also a concern. Fungicide and insecticide usage tends to be high to ensure that no blemishes or bugs accompany the flowers to the United States, but this is often at the expense of workers' health and the environment.

(Simon Spencer “Farmer”, July 2010)

“Rhubarb”*

It was impressed upon me that rhubarb leaves are poisonous when a kindly, but misguided, neighbour threw all his off-cut leaves into my chicken pen. What a mess! What those leaves did to my birds' insides doesn't bear thinking about and it took weeks to get them right again. Like many plants the concentration of oxalic acid in rhubarb increases as the summer continues and by its height in August, the plant is downright poisonous. Never eat or take the leaves in any way - you will end up with the quickest 'runs' imaginable and have stomach cramps worse than - being kicked by a horse. To top it all, your liver will have had the equivalent of a few dozen pints of beer. But that's the leaves, not the stalks, although in the height of the summer it is best leaving the whole thing alone.

In the early summer though, when there is little else sweet in the garden, rhubarb is a taste of promise; of summer time and heady days. If you can get rhubarb and ice cream on a sunny Sunday afternoon in May you have a rare treat indeed.

(Janice Houghton - Wallace “Home Farmer”, April 2010)