A new garden bed of fresh, light, fluffy soil is a sight to behold. Even though I had pressing commitments waiting inside making me feel more and more guilty as the days draw on, a freshly made bed is something that just can’t be ignored.
I made a bit of a compromise with myself. If I spent a good few hours doing my dreaded accounts then I could spend the afternoon playing – err I mean gardening, in my new garden bed. Gardening is a serious business. I am providing food for the future. Good quality food at that!
So I raced through my tasks and rewarded myself with the first of my gardening endeavours – a trip to the garden centre to stock up on compost, blood and bone and fertilisers. I really should sort out my compost system so I get enough for my garden but it is on the project list for when the task list gets completed, so who knows when that will be.
I only got slightly distracted at the garden centre and bought a couple of clearance spring bulbs that should have been in the ground in April. But the flowers on the packet looked pretty and they were cheap!
Once I got home I emptied the bags of compost into the bed along with a good helping of loads of blood and bone, fertilizer and sheep poo pellets and mixed it all in. Then I finally liberated my leeks and they are growing freely in open soil and about time too.
I also planted some spring onion Ishikura as they were the closest thing I could find to the Spanish calcots. The Spanish have a huge festival in Catalonia, to celebrate the spring and have a massive BBQ and grill loads of spring onions and generally have a good time. Brother the Chef went along this spring (my last autumn) and said it was loads of fun, so I can’t think of a better way to ring in the spring by having a big BBQ’ed spring onion party – Spanish style, with Japanese spring onions, in New Zealand.
So all in all it was a great day. I got my hands dirty and planted some green things and got to cross something off my list.
Come again soon – we still haven’t had that turnip soup from the top of the list.
Sarah the Gardener : o )
Sometimes I envy all the gardeners with the raised beds because it looks like it would be so much easier to weed, but then I remember how hard it would be to get soil into those beds around here, and I am just thankful for the tiller that attaches to the garden tractor.
Hi Lucinda. There is absolutely nothing wrong with growing straight in the ground and a lot of raised beds are built at great expense with soil from bags from the hardware store, when a bit of hard work digging the ground is perfectly suitable and free! I’d love to have my beds straight in the ground (it would help my expansion plan greatly) however as this was once a swamp it has a tendency to flood and so the only way is up – but it is our soil we’re using.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Oooo looking good. More space to fill – you just can’t beat it 🙂
Hi There. I know! I’m so excited. I really can’t wait until I have weed and cleared all of the beds and they are all empty and fluffy and waiting for the next season, it it is some kind of fresh slate. This new bed has encouraged me to get my act together! It will be spring before we know it!
Cheers Sarah : o )
Looks like a great place to spend the afternoon. I love leeks! I think they are an under used veggie. Thumbs up!
Hi Sheila. Leeks are so lovely – especially in a leek and potato soup! Yummo!
Cheers Sarah : o )