15 posts tagged “gardening”
The first tomatoes of this year were ripe enough to pick today - even although we've been eating beans and courgettes (way too many courgettes) for weeks now, the first tomatoes are always special.
When the sun shines, I go outside.
I was talking to my Mama yesterday, whilst we were there for the Easter weekend, and I mentioned the whole taking-on-way-too-much-at-once thing, with particular reference to how guilty I felt about not being out in the garden more. My Mama talked some general soothing good sense at me, all about how life should be lived, and no-one should feel guilt about the chores, all of which I agree with, and then she said something which really surprised me. She said that she felt that my Nana had been a slave to her garden, and that Mama had always been determined not to be the same.
The thing is, that I remember Nana as being devoted to her garden, rather than being a slave to it. She used to take me around and explain how to do things, and she showed me how to potter in a greenhouse when I was really quite small! And above all I remember her as being proud of her garden.She loved her roses, and always had fresh flowers from the garden in her house.
I grew up eating home-grown vegetables from my Mama's garden and vividly recall being sent to the raspberry patch with a colander at my Nana's. I finally got out in my own garden this afternoon, in the sunshine, and while sorting out my herb patch, with my hands smelling of mint and rosemary, I decided that being a gardener is probably a family tradition, even if sometimes it is also a chore.
There are flowers on my tomatoes tonight - and the extra-hot radishes I grew, are.
It has rained for a lot of today, in a quite fierce but normal Scottish summer way, completely unlike the mainly dry and sunny Scottish summer we have been having so far this year. My garden smells wonderful this evening - wet earth and grass and peony scented. My peonies are just starting to come out of their tight buds into something a little more dishevelled-looking, I know they'll be wonderful for about three days, and then they will just fall apart, as they always do. Ephemeral flowers, but very beautiful.
Probably just as well.
And I'm feeling much better now anyway.
Ground elder - http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/ground-elder.htm . And none of us have gout, although I will admit to some aches and pains these days, particularly when I've spent most of the day digging out ground elder!
On the plus side, it looks as though it's edible - in small quantities, cooked like spinach. This is lucky, as it's appearing in the spinach bed...
We've had a week of glorious weather, sunshine from early in the morning to late at night, and it has just been so wonderful! All the washing for the whole week has been dried outside (I love the smell of washing hung in the open air), and I've had windows wide open until the midges drive me to shut them, every evening.
But on Friday night I uttered those absolutely unforgivable words - "The garden could do with some rain..." Why did I do that? I suspect because I am really reluctant to use a hosepipe on the garden (we really do need to think about water use in this country), and it's one hell of a chore watering the garden from the water-butt.
So today, to pay me back, we've had storms, with the kind of thunder that rolls around and then comes back again, occasional lightening, and slightly less occasional very, very heavy rain. The drive and garage are flooded again, and I got drenched to the skin running back to the house from the greenhouse, although it was still so warm that I dried off almost instantly.
On the plus side, the vegetable beds are looking wonderful and well watered - and I had time tonight to write up a garden plan so that I can remember what was planted where and when. And the weather forecast says sunshine all next week too.
...they always seem too bulky on my hands, and you can't feel through them, so you can't pinch out bits where the weeds grow through other plants (all over the place in my garden). So although I have plenty of pairs of gardening gloves (because I lose them, buy more, then find them again), I tend to carry them around with me and then only use them if I absolutely need to - thistle and gooseberry bushes usually.
I discovered today, that the numb finger joints on my right hand have a huge advantage which I had not previously been aware of - I can pull out nettles and not feel them!
I think, honestly, that I actually like being able to feel the soil. Scooping handfuls of sieved compost from the wheelbarrow into my potting-compost bin this afternoon felt wonderful. The soil was warm, and felt as though things should grow easily - and Handsome had done most of the heavy work, which made the task much more satisfying.
The downside of non-compatibility with gardening gloves is that my hands are usually wrecked. There's dirt under my nails, despite scrubbing repeatedly and (Handsome's secret tip) washing my hair, they're covered in little nicks and cuts, which are fine now, but will probably sting like mad in the middle of the night and they're definitely rough enough to use as sandpaper. I only ever think about these things afterwards.
It was a glorious spring weekend, so I gardened, and then I gardened some more. On Saturday I planted chard and spinach and brussel sprouts (Mouse loves them) and radishes, and planted out the first batch of lettuces - it's very satisfying having lots of rows marked out where things are going to come through (hopefully). It makes me feel quite smug to walk around my garden and think where the crops are going to be. If only the cat would stop 'using' the potato patch, and digging them up.
On Sunday, Handsome and I went for a walk in the morning, and I managed to persuade him to come home via a garden centre (I needed plant food and a new riddle), and they had some lovely discovery apple trees... We really needed them, for two reasons, firstly to attempt to soak up some of the excess water that is still lying around squelchingly in our garden, and secondly, to justify having bought a car that can take two apple trees in the boot!
So, on Sunday afternoon, Handsome planted two apple trees!
