Seasons of Joy: In the Garden

I need to pre-empt this post by warning that there are many many photos ahead, most of which look much like the one before. I am so excited by all I have achieved this week (marginally more than last week 😉) that I have captured each and every minor accomplishment in picture form.

I took the weekend off, so by Monday I was literally awake and itching to get started on my gardening for the day. The weather is so gorgeous at the moment, that it is easy to simply leap out of bed and dig in (‘scuse the pun!):

I had spent the weekend wandering in and out of our new green house. I don’t do anything, just go and admire the plants and then go back in the house, only to come out five minutes later to have another little looksee:

So far, from the plants we bought on Saturday, I have only managed to kill two. Actually, Gary informs me it is only one as the (mainly dead) tomato plant ‘just needs to be repotted in a larger pot’. The basil, however, is a lost cause, which is a shame because I adore basil:

I’ve taken it inside to see if the warmth will help, but I think it is probably a lost cause. I bought another Jasmine which I planted out. Gary told me that each time I planted something I needed to water it well. I had heard that plants like rain water. Of course, eager to get it right, their every wish is my command and I used water from the water butt. It smelt a bit funny, but I had never paid any attention to rain water before…maybe that’s what it is supposed to smell like. Apparently not. Our rain water butt does not have a lid and it has been sitting for many years without being used. It smelt because it was, y’know, old. Mum reassured me that it wouldn’t do the plants any harm. But I still prayed a little for poor old Jasmine II (Jasmine the second). What I can’t tell you, however, is why I felt the need to water the driveway…

I reused the string that ties our Abel and Cole veg boxes up each week to attach Jasmine II to the trellis. I cut them to size and keep them in a baggy for such a moment as this:

On Tuesday I found the handle to the fork I’d been using for the past couple of weeks. Gary was right. It is much easier to use a handled fork than a non-handled fork. It begs the question why they sell forks without handles in the first place. I’m just saying’:

Gary and I had walked the garden on the weekend together. He walks the golf course with his boss each morning to check in and see what needs doing. This was very much like that. Except he was the boss. And it took about five minutes. Our garden is MUCH smaller than two 18 hole golf courses 😄

He asked me to clear the bed which runs down our front garden. At this point, you need to notice the rusty pipe, because we will be revisiting this later:

I needed to get rid of the rubbish, pull up any weeds and cut the self seeded hazels back. First though, I planted my mints. I had bought a spearmint and an apple mint. Mints spread very quickly so I planted mine in pots. I also gave the rosemary a haircut. In order to stop it becoming leggy, rosemary plants need to be trimmed:

And (using tap water this time) I watered all the plants well:

Then I moved on to clearing the bed. I really enjoyed this as I got to use a big snippy tool and a little snippy tool, both of which cut the branches with extraordinary ease:

I think I did a really good job! I had decided to cut the longer hazel branches down into smaller twigs, which I plan to dry and turn into kindling packages for next winter. I am using one of my large herb pots to dry them out on as it is a total sun trap and should do the job in double quick time:

Now, back to that rusty pipe. I loved how this looked, and thought I might be able to use it as a plant pot. So I upended it onto a couple of bricks for drainage and extra height and popped it next to my primroses:

I wasn’t sure what I would be putting in there, but I really did like how it looked. The last thing I did was to water the plants in the green house before heading inside for some quiet time with God:

That night I found myself heading off to bed earlier than normal and looking forward to Wednesday morning:

My goal for this morning was to plant my lemon balm plant (which is apparently part of the mint family and just as hardy) and to feed Jasmine I and her sister Jasmine II. Gary had got me some compost and some fish, bone and blood:

He told me I needed to sprinkle it and then dig it in. I tried to use my gardening fork, but it was too big. So I got a fork from the kitchen (please note that all the forks I buy come with their own handle 🤔). This was so much easier, and I dreamt about all the utensils I could design for the garden that would be far superior to the handle-less garden fork. I mean, kitchen cutlery is just the right size to be used for container gardening:

Ruffus came to say hello, and promptly peed on my compost and thus fertilising my soon to be herb garden:

I planted the lemon balm and popped it near to the rest of its family:

Aren’t they all looking grand?! I’m so excited!

I fed them all and watered them before calling it a day:

Thursday came, and I again sprung (or should that be sprang?) out of bed. I’m waiting for my enthusiasm to dampen but it honestly seems to increase rather than decrease each day:

I had decided that today would be clearing up the mess at the end of the flower bed day:

I emptied the pots and dug a hole to put the bulbs into under our plum tree. Note to self: No matter how big you think you need the hole, double it. It can never be too big but can definitely be too small. I am not experienced enough and I trod in the plants, squashing them into a hole which I now know was too small and in which the plant was stuck fast. I brought in some more earth and covered the root the best I could. And watered it. ‘Cos watering covers a multitude of sins:

It seems to be thriving, so I guess I didn’t do too badly. I swept everything into a corner and decided to finish it the next day:

For now, though, I had a half dead tomato plant to repot:

To be honest, a couple of days later it still looks like it’s on its last legs, so I’m not convinced repotting has done any good.
I then went back to the front of the house and placed the two pots I’d cleared into my herb garden to be:

I’m not sure I love where the white pot is but I am going to plant it with a fuchsia and see if it looks any better. I am loving my pipe pot though and have spotted something in the garden that I think will look good inside it:

The mints are doing really well and I can see growth on all of them, and the rosemary seems really healthy too:

I’m pretty happy with how everything is looking:

Friday I was raring to go and excitedly returned to my favourite place. The garden. I still can’t believe I’m typing that with a straight face…

I knew I wanted to plant the pipe with what I thought was a chive plant. I was right, it was a chive plant, but unfortunately it wasn’t my chive plant. It was Abigail’s, who promptly burst into tears when she saw I had replanted it into my pipe. It did look cute though:

I reassured her that I could probably split the plant in two and she could have half of her plant back, but she wasn’t overly impressed with that idea. She is amazing though, because after she’d had a few tears and I was all ready to re-replant it back into the sink from which it was taken, she very graciously gave me the whole plant. Yay! Thank you baby, I LOVE my gift ❤️ Doesn’t it look beautiful?

I swept up the last little bit of rubbish left over from the day before:

And stood back to survey all I had achieved over the last two weeks. The herb garden so far:

The red currant, white currant and raspberry patch:

And the gateway:

And I returned to my kitchen rather smug and very pleased with myself.