Weeding and building.

I am trying not to throw all my eggs into one basket as I have a lot of work to do across the garden to get it spring ready and so if I concentrate all my efforts in one area then others will suffer because of it.  So I am juggling loads of different projects and loving the challenge of it all.  This is going to be the best season ever!

It was such a lovely morning and so my first effort was to weed at least one bed.  I’d done all the easy ones and so I had to choose another one.  I decided after much deliberation it would probably be best to tackle the beds that actually have things growing in them.  So of those beds the one that would make the most impact visually was the old “odds and sods” bed where things that don’t fit into my crop rotation plan or items I have been given or I just have to have and are outside my grand plan or things where my eyes were bigger than my beds and there was no room anywhere else, end up.  This is soon to be the bean bed and it has broad beans in it to prove it.  Although I seriously have no idea why these things end up in my garden as we don’t like them all that much.  And there are loads of flowers and bees to ensure we have a bumper crop.  Some people have suggested I waited until they were too big… so I’m going to give them a second chance and eat them smaller this year and see.

So there I was weeding away and I came across this wee frog.  He was so cute, but I had just denuded his habitat.  In his little froggy world it was like I’d cleared a rainforest with a bulldozer.  I have to say it was VERY weedy in this bed.  This would have been a frog utopia.  So I did the right thing – well I hope it was the right thing and I rehomed him to an area that I can’t see ever being mowed, cultivated, landscaped or disturbed in any way shape or form.  I hope frogs aren’t territorial and I haven’t started some kind of amphibian turf war.

After the bed was cleared and there was sufficient dirt under my nails to make me feel like I’d done some proper gardening, I turned to the shed and the greenhouse construction.  My natural instinct was to prepare each piece, cleaning it up and checking for damage and ticking it off the list.  The washing part was turning me into a procrastinator as it just seemed insurmountable and hard work. So I skipped that bit and thought I’d wash as I go.  Then I lined up all the parts and tried to check them off on the materials list.  This caused me issues as I couldn’t quite work it out.  I got out the tape measure and was double checking lengths and bits and bobs to try and tick off each item and was just getting myself into a flap.   

Then I remember who I was – someone who laughs in the face of instructions.  I never do exactly what I should – but I always get there in the end – often having learnt some valuable lessons along the way.  I’m the kind of person who learns by doing – so I cast aside the materials list and using the instructions as a vague guide, I began to assemble the lengths of aluminium in a way that looks like a greenhouse.  I laid it all out and then started bolting it all together.  I have done the back end and one full side and almost completed the other side.  It was all quite logical once I got into it.  The only thing that concerns me is there are 4 very important looking pieces that don’t seem to fit into my way of building a greenhouse, but I’m sure their purpose will become apparent at some point – hopefully.

It was a great day.  Oh and this morning a little surprise was waiting for me in the hot water cupboard.  My chillies and peppers are coming up.  The only problem is now they can’t stay in the hot water cupboard as while warm, it is also dark and my babies need to come into the light.  But I don’t have anywhere suitable at this point – mostly due to the fact the greenhouse is still in pieces.  I need to get my act together and in the meantime cobble something together to make them happy so they will grow big and strong for me.

Come again soon – This has to be the busiest time of the year and there is heaps to do and I love every minute of it.

Sarah the Gardener  : o )