Ask Grandma
Those of us adults who have grandparents can count ourselves lucky!
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.
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!
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:
ME: Grandma, when should I stake my tomatoes?
GRANDMA: When they begin to fall over.
ME: Grandma, how will I know when the guavas are ripe?
GRANDMA: When the birds come to eat them.
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.