This time next week we will officially be in the season of spring.

The change of season happens with the back end of August, so I have five days left dwell in the dying days of winter.  The weather is supposed to be a mixed bag of rain, sun, and cold and then unsurprisingly the forecast for the first few days of spring are almost identical to the last days of winter so I don’t imagine there will be a magical transformation in the atmosphere at midnight on Friday.  The seasons tend to slip into one another and without the measuring of time that seems to be an obsession with our world, we wouldn’t even notice the exact moment in time when winter is overtaken by new beginnings.

Having said that, the thought of the new season fills me with a slight sense of panic – there is so much to do!  There is still heaps of digging and weeding, although with each passing year as a gardener, while there is always weeding – and somehow the demand for digging hasn’t eased, the soil seems easier to work.    But as we have only recently increased the height of some of the gardens then there is a lot of soil shifting to do to get them spring ready.  It is reminiscent of those early days when we first built the garden.  Back then I had a shiny new wheelbarrow for Hubby the Un-Gardener to use – now I have a one-armed, flat-tired, cracked-base wheelbarrow that I expect him to use.  I think it’s time for him to have a new one – I wonder if I can get away with giving it to him for father’s day?

In between the rains we have had some cracking days and I managed to achieve enough to leave me with a satisfied feeling that gardening has been done and progress is being made.  I weeded the garlic and the onions.  The worms are such nosy creatures and they all came to the surface so see what was going on.  At first I was delighted to see that I had heaps of worms, but it didn’t take long to get annoyed with them.  Once they realised what was going on – they behaved in a sort of panicked way and tried to flee, but their sense of direction is dreadful and they just kept getting in the way.  I fear I may have killed a couple in my efforts to eradicate all trace of weeds from the garlic and onion patch.  Next I gave the plants a feed with a chicken poo / sheep poo juice combo, because apparently they love a good feed at this stage of the game – helps them to grow fat!

I also made an awesome trellis out of string for the peas to grow up into… until I ran out of string.  I’ve made enough for them to have something to cling to for a while yet as I don’t imagine they will leap ahead by over a metre in a week.  If I haven’t managed to get string by the time they reach to the top them I will have been very slack indeed!

I took a look at the seedlings languishing on the outside shelf and they were beginning to get neglected.  There were a whole lot of leeks that I only vaguely remember sowing.  They weren’t looking too flash so I popped them into new slightly larger pots full of rich soil to give them a bit of a revival.  But I need to go back to the plan and find out where they need to be, as I will need the pots I put them into, in a couple of weeks for the tomatoes seedlings that are going great guns in the greenhouse.

I repotted the asparagus as its status has changed from casual interesting project, to completely replace an entire garden.  I have two beds for the asparagus and they hold about eight plants each.  One holds mature crowns that we can eat willy nilly and have been already – soooo good! The other holds two year old crowns grown from seed, but the level of soil in the younger bed isn’t all that deep and with all the rain we’ve been having – while one bed is going nuts, the other one is shows no sign of life.  Suddenly those scruffy looking seedlings have become very precious.

Then I popped some of the herbs from the outside shelf into the herb garden – half a dozen coriander plants and a thyme.  The baby chickens on seeing the action came running over to check it out.  I think they think I am their second mum, because they are always following me about the place – mostly as I “pied piper” them back to the chicken coop!  As I dug holes for my plants I was stoked to see how many worms there were.  I had heaps.  I speak of this in past tense as they were all quickly gobbled up by greedy chicks hovering way to close to my trowel for my liking!

So as winter ebbs away, the craziness of spring is just beginning to make itself felt – and it feels good!

Come again soon – the modification of the chicken coop fence has just climbed up in priority on the to do list.

Sarah the Gardener  : o )