Garden 2012 no18.

Garden 2012 no 18

Oh my poor garden. Hospital says I can now ‘resume normal activities’ (while taking care) and the eye is healing nicely. Therefore; this weekend is going to be a gardening weekend. I’m still getting fresh spinach leaves every couple of days and they are good either steamed as part of a hot meal or fresh as part of a salad.

 My lettuce is almost gone, I’ve another two or three and then that’s it. I am still picking spinach leaves, the last of the nasturtium leaves and the last of the spring onions to make up a bowl of salad every couple of days and I have the last of the shallots drying out ready to be spiced and pickled.
I’m a bit upset about the lavender and the tansy. I usually make up bowls of potpourri for the house with these. Unfortunately this year they flowered and died of in the couple of weeks I’ve been unable to get out there. I’m quite cross with myself for leaving them, they were ready to be cut a few days before I went into hospital but I decided to leave them until that weekend. Now I wish I had harvested them when I had the chance. But at least these will flower again next year and there is no real harm done. The more lasting damage is likely to be around the edge of the garden in amongst the wild flowers and hedgerow. I’ve always been very careful about removing deep rooting invasive weeds as they appeared. Particularly the thistles, dandelions, and those big tall dock leaves, they all have roots that quickly go deep and are a real problem to get out. I’ve taken a walk around the edge of the garden and there they all are, happily growing, spreading and depriving my plants of space and nutrition. This weekend it will be a war on those weeds. Its not even that I have any particular grudge against these plants, they are all part of the natural habitat and, in their own way are quite attractive, its just that left unchecked the garden would be full of these and little else. 

Another regret is the way my herb collection has gone to seed and is past its best for harvesting. But I still have quite a lot of frozen herbs collected last year and if I cut the herbs back now they should all grow again next year and I’ll be able to collect them then. I bought Mace for the first time this year and didn't even get to save a little. It smelt wondefull, harvesting my first Mace will be something to look forward to next year.

The dainty little purple flower growing in the midst of chaos is…….actually I don’t know what it is. I think it was part of the mixed wild flower seeds I sprinkled there. As you can see.....the wind was getting up and the little flowers were waving wildly in the wind.

This yellow flower is another attractive but unknown addition to the garden. It has grown tall and flowered in the couple of weeks I’ve been away from the garden, and now I’m busy looking up pictures of yellow flowers and trying to identify it. 

This is something I am pleased with. I brought back a whole load of Mullen seeds from my last visit to my sister and this is where I sprinkled them. At this point I’m not sure if these new plants are self seeded Digitalis (foxglove) or, if some of the Mullen seeds have started to grow.  To my non-expert eye, Mullen and Foxglove look too similar to decide, but which ever it is, I’m happy with it.

Garden 2012, no 17

Garden 20112 no 17

So here I am, now 17 days post surgery and at last beginning to feel more like my normal self. So much like my normal self that I’m getting very agitated about the state of my garden. I may be feeling better, but heavy gardening is out of the question. I spent about an hour and a half out there today, the weather was lovely and it felt so good to be back outside.

The first thing I did was check the pond. Its now covered in duck weed but that’s ok, the water underneath is crystal clear, I think the duck weed actually helps clean the water, it puts long thread like roots down into the water and seems to suck up all the impurities.

And to my utter delight, I found a tiny baby frog; it’s so young it still has its baby tadpole tail attached.

I’m worried about the state of the weeds. I’ve kept on top of it all year and now the combination of a couple of weeks neglect and excess rainfall has resulted in weed heaven. I’m afraid by the time I’m fit enough to weed the garden the weeds will have sent down those long roots that are impossible to get rid of. My tub of nasturtiums is completely overrun with weeds and grass. I think the only thing I can do with that tub is too empty it out, remove the weeds, feed the compost and get ready to start again next year. I’m waiting a little while before emptying it out because its producing a lot of seed ready for next year.

The grass was so long you could lose things in it; I did manage to cut the grass because I only have a little strip around the veg plot. It was long and wet and took forever to cut, but I managed. It needs another cut and the edges need doing but it looks better than it did.

I also cut all the dead flowers off the buddleia, that tree is only about 3 or 4 years old and its taking over all ready. If it gets any taller I won’t be able to reach to cut it so I guess next year it will have to be cut right back.

I found myself getting tired in the garden, and I came indoors to make the yoghurt. 

Todays harvest was Lettuce, spinach, beetroot, spring onions, a few nasturtium leaves and a little chocolate mint. The chocolate mint was cut right back before I went into hospital and already it’s covered in new growth. 

Garden 2012 no 14 ( a little late)

I’ve just found a garden blog ( Garden 2012 no 14 ) that has never been posted, not on Multiply where it was intended, or on any of the other blogs I’ve started recently. This is one that was missed in the chaos that is/ was my surgery combined with the scramble to set up a new online base. This must have been one of the last things I wrote before we were told of Multiplies eminent demise.

Written on 31.07.2012

After my weekend away the first thing I did was to admire the garden. Every time I leave the house the first thing I do when I return is to check the pond. I’m not sure why I’ve developed this habit, or what I expect to see, but it’s always the first thing I do. 

This time I checked the pond and found far fewer tadpoles than I expected. Before I left for the weekend lots of them had legs, now I’m thinking a whole bunch of them grew more legs and felt brave enough to hop out of the pond and explore. Guess I won’t be seeing a lot of them until next year when they should return to spawn. 

Having stood over the pond, I then took a good look around the garden. Suddenly every thing is in bloom. My garden has been blooming for a while, but not like this. 

Despite the weather, summer is now officially in residence in my garden. In fact the rain seems to have encouraged every thing to grow more. 

There’s not a lot more to say really, I’ve been away for 4 days and I’ve lots to catch up with both indoors and out. But for now………..I just enjoy looking at my blooming garden. 

Garden 2012 no16

Garden2012 no 16

So now I’m 11 days post surgery and absolutely NOT supposed to be gardening. But I needed to go to the shop which is only across the road and that meant walking though the garden. The first thing I did was to fall over my tub of beetroot, while I was down there, sitting beside it, rubbing my knees and feeling very foolish, I was close enough to notice how badly it needed watering. I thought ‘just doing a bit of watering couldn’t hurt’, and that’s what I intended to do, just a little bit of watering. 

That is until my friend arrived, she’s not a gardener but she knows how much my garden means to me. She agreed to pick the last of the broad beans and pull what was left of the bean plants ready for composting. 

Some of the beans were already going black on the plants, they wouldn’t have lasted much longer. Picking the beans, pulling the plants, collecting the canes and then doing some watering was the only work that was done today, plus pulling a few of the biggest shallots and   beetroot, but it was enough to stop me getting really frantic. 

I couldn’t help noticing the rhubarb needed pulling, some of the lettuce has to come up and some of the Tay berries are ripe. 

The nasturtiums have mostly gone to seed and there is grass growing in their tub.   

And of course the weeds are thriving in my absence.  After my friend helped me out we just sat outside, enjoyed the sunshine and admired the plants. The pond is looking good. It is covered in duckweed now which, as far as establishing a wildlife pond goes, is a very good thing. The water under the duckweed is crystal clear and the tadpoles and baby frogs are loving the cover it gives them.

Today is the first time I have sat in my garden, in the midst of my plants and enjoyed being there for almost two weeks, It was lovely, until big black clouds appeared and blocked the sunshine.

This evening I have bottled my first jar of beetroot and my first jar of shallots. It’s a start and the rest will be OK in the ground for a little longer. I hope I can get back out there soon, my garden needs me.