Ok, so there are 16 days left in May and I’m banging my head against a mid-month slump. It isn’t intentional but is I guess part of the reason I really need to make this month count – in the garden it is boring. There isn’t much to do at all. Certainly nothing challenging. So, I need to make it challenging and fun, so the month doesn’t get wasted. It doesn’t help that the weather is still playing up and howling a gale. It is dark and gloomy, the wind is lashing the house and the rain comes in in squalls, intense but momentary. It isn’t exactly outside weather. The boffins are suggesting it will calm down by the weekend, but we will be swapping wind for cold. I think I don’t mind cold as you can wrap up and be warm. Wind is just annoying.
So, what can I do with the next 12 days – because I don’t do garden work on the weekends – that is for family time. In that May slides by, so do kids. Teenagers with burgeoning career plans and hopes and dreams of their own makes time seem more valuable that a few measly weeks on the eve of winter. Every day is precious in its own way and needs to be made to count in some way shape or form so I can look back and say I didn’t waste it.
So today – it is windy and yucky, and I had tiramisu for lunch… a day not wasted? But I need to make plans for the garden. The shed has been delayed until next week, so instead of jubilantly shadowing my amazing builder, whooping for joy with each nail driven home, today and tomorrow need to count in whole new way.
Of the things languishing on my to do list there are some things that do need to be done…
I have 100 daffodil bulbs to be planted along the inside of my garden fence – it will look fabulous in the spring. I bought the bulbs ages ago and put them in the fridge, because I also bought a bulb planter for a child to give to me for Mother’s Day. So, as it was a gift, I couldn’t very well use it before then… I think I pulled off the surprised – ‘oh thank you, just what I wanted’ charade even though we all knew what was going on. And since receiving this cool gift, I have either lost my mojo or was busy. So, with only 16 days left of autumn, this is a sort of sooner rather than later task. But is it one I can do in the wind and the rain? Just how dedicated am I to Make May Count?
Another task on the list is to take some hard wood cuttings from the wild growing Muehlenbeckia. It is all over the place here and I love the way it cascades down the side of a bank, like a beautiful green lacy veil. I think it is just the thing to hide some building scars that inevitably occur to the landscape in the midst of construction. It just makes sense; it already likes it here and it does a fab job of holding the sandy soil together. But from what I understand the cuttings are best done in the cold of winter… but we’re nearly there. Maybe I could do some now and some later, just for the want of something to do.
I also have a mile of trenches to dig to connect the irrigation together, but I’d really like Hubby the Un-Gardeners help but he has a complex schedule so maybe it’ll be done this month, or possibly next. But speaking of irrigation – where the tap in the garden is – the pressure is awesome, but if left to its own devices accidently it tends to bore a hole in the sand, splashes sand everywhere or overflows out of the garden and on to the lawn. I had a thought I could create some kind of gravel filled catchment zone to soak it up and avoid the damage and be an aesthetically pleasing tap feature.
I also have some paperworky stuff that needs to be and should be done before the end of the month so on days like today where I feel very much like a fair-weather gardener, I can still make things happen.
Ok – so without committing myself to too much and overdoing things, I will endeavour to make the above happen before the end of the month. Alongside anything else exciting that may come along. And of course, my shed office will also be complete and how much of a help or hinderance I’ll be to the construction of it remains to be seen!
Come again soon – without a plan to guide us, we are all just lost (well certainly I am).
Sarah the Gardener : o)
Ho Sarah, how about laying a pipe behind the daffs and fill with home brew to attract the snails, they will die happy. You have your priorities right family wise, and this enforced “rest” is good for your illness. I understand, I have M.E. and would love to be out in the garden but resting means we have restored energy to tackle the next. I so admire you and get a ton of pleasure from your blog. Yours in gardening ! Lynne
Thank you so much for your kind words. I think you are right, I should just make the most of the bad weather (it is still bad again today) to re-energise. There is always next week to get things done. All the best to you. : o)
Welcome to living on the coast… get and indoor hobby 😊😊😊
It is certainly a dramatic life at times, but there are also more than enough perfectly wonderful days too! I think you’re right – I may need a indoor hobby – maybe houseplants – I’ve never been able to keep them alive! : o)
Muehlenbeckia is something I never considered planting. It grows like a weed on the coast, and is difficult to get rid of. I suppose it is pretty. I don’t really look at it that way. It does not seem to naturalize, and I have not seen many self sown plants away from where it was (likely) planted a very long time ago.
I figured as it grows well here, and there are spots were it cascades down over bald sandy spots it would be a nice option, making the most of what we already have to cover the construction scars. I have also read is scrambles up things well, so was considering training it as a wind break… I could be being a tad ambitious but it is worth a try. : o)
Like I say, although it is aggressive where it is, it does not seem to naturalize. I think like many things, even Algerian ivy, it ‘can’ be managed. I just never tried.