“Never mind, soon be shorts weather’, someone said to me yesterday – as I was on my third coat of the day and still wetter than an otters pocket.
I’m not in so much of a rush for ‘shorts weather’ now as I have just bought a fabulous pair of Stihl work trousers. Last week I mentioned that the best gardening advice is ‘Right plant, right place’, meaning that the most effective thing to do when gardening is to put your plants in the position and conditions that they need to thrive. Wearing my ‘new trews’, I realised that, ‘Right clothing for the job’, is equally effective advice.
I love ‘Stihl stuff’ because – as an unlikely fashionista–I love their easily-recognisable flash of orange, but they are also just so practical. With useful pockets in useful places, and zipped vents (more useful than you could imagine), they are cut to allow bending, twisting and kneeling at every possible angle – and are (often) far more flexible than the person wearing them. My fabulous new FS 3Protect trousers also have light padding on the front so you don’t get ‘pebble-dashed’ when strimming and to protect from thorns when hedgecutting and clearing brash and possibly the most important aspect of all, post menopause, – a generously elasticated waistband. Although I’m sure post-menopausal women are possibly not their target customer.
I have always been a poor clothes shopper and whilst shopping online spares me the headache of people-interaction, the price I usually pay for that is having to return an item once or twice before getting the right size. Inevitably, occasionally that doesn’t happen, which is why I have a pile of clothes that are the wrong size that will ‘one day go onto E-bay’. Probably the same day that Hell freezes over.
Not only are Webbs in Crickhowell reputable Stihl dealers – for clothing and machinery–but they are connoisseurs of customer service. Not having them in stock, they ordered in the FS 3Protect trousers (which arrived in just 3 days) in a XS and S, so I simply bought the pair that fitted – which is how people shopped in the good old days.
Incidentally there are now a pair of size Small FS 3Protect Stihl trousers at the shop waiting for another lucky gardener.
I was also given the chance to try the new gardening app called Fryd (pronounced Fruid) last week. I have only got four apps on my phone, and that’s sometimes three too many, so I wasn’t too keen at first but was persuaded to try it (my new trousers had put me in a good mood).
Apparently Fryd is very willing and able to help you plan your veg plot, get sowing/harvesting reminders, companion planting ideas, access to a crowd-sourced plant library and ‘lots more’. Most of these things are free to access and there’s also an affordable subscription if you want enhanced features. It’s supported by some well-known names in gardening, such as no dig’s Charles Dowding, which is a high recommendation in my book.
I have managed to download it and have a quick look around and I’m sure it could be very useful for a lot of gardeners – especially those starting out and benefiting from ‘community’ help’ as it aims to take the jeopardy out of veg growing. Fryd already has a community of currently 200,000 fellow growers, which you can connect with to share experiences and enjoy learning from each other, and is now available to download in the UK on both iOS and Android platforms.
For more information about Fryd and its mission, visit www.fryd.app/en or follow them on @fryd_app.
So now I’m up to five apps – and I’m also at the stage whenever anyone mentions ‘an App’, all I hear is ‘A nap.’