And it certainly isn’t waiting for this gardener! I have been in and out of the garden this week, but I can say without a shadow of doubt, I’m not progressing with my spring preparations as quickly as I’d like. It isn’t like I’m not achieving things, because I’ve ticked off some pretty big items off the to-do list. I just underestimate just how far I can stretch my time. I start the day thinking I’d like to tick these certain things off my list. But come the end of the day I’m only two thirds the way through task one!
There are signs for the impending spring all around me. I can’t dilly dally while daffodils are watching.
So next week I’m going to ramp things up and be more intentional. I have one day out of the garden, and there is the usual computer gardening that needs doing, but aside from that, there is – in theory, plenty of time to really make a dent in the list. The weather doesn’t look that great – but it is just showers and light rain and I have a raincoat and a can do attitude!
The dome has been cleaned and swept, and I even crawled between the shelves to clean the windows – a minor design flaw not taken into account by a younger more nimbler me! The shelves have been disinfected but the wood is thirsty, so I need to apply some linseed oil. Unfortunately I can’t find it. I can see it in my minds eye, but have no idea where it could be. It is quicker to go and buy some more than it is to look for it. Then I can put everything back in it and have it ready for seed sowing and seedling growing.
This is a big project – building a wind break across here. Then I can tend to the garden beds. I expect by the end of the week, at the very least the wood would have been ordered and optimistically the posts will be in the ground.
Insert carrot seeds here. A 2 minute job… surely?!
I need to push on with the brick path. From experience I have discovered each section takes about an hour and a half. Surely I can commit to this at least twice this week – if not more…
I need to stage an intervention for my rhubarb and remove its good for nothing weedy friends and get it some air and a good meal. It shouldn’t take more than an hour – an easy fix.
I need to get this new red currant in so I have a healthy plant in the garden. I need to do this before the old mostly dead one breaks dormancy and shows the slightest hint that one small bud might have life in it, lest I try to save it. I don’t have time for that, but I’m just too nice – although it will probably eventually die of neglect anyway!
So in a public declaration, next week I would like to achieve, sowing a few seeds, introducing Blossom – you’ll love her, finish cleaning the dome, rescuing the rhubarb, removing the cover crops – I may ask Hubby the Un-Gardener for help as it is a tedious chore, sow a row of carrots, make two new sections in the brick path, fix the storm damaged guttering, get started on the windbreak behind the dome to stop the eddies and plant the new red currant to replace the one that died. Actually, I have a lot of plants about the place that could be planted easily so I should do that too…
This storm battered gutter isn’t collecting much rain from down there on the ground. I need to pop it back up, but probably can’t do it alone so will need Hubby the Un-Gardeners help.
I’m not even sure this mustard cover crop is capable of moving on to the flowering stage, it has been too battered by the wind and is almost at the point of being no good to me and my soil. It needs bringing down.
As much as this is absolutely beautiful, a flowering lupin cover crop no longer has the same benefit to the soil as a tender leafy one. I need to pull it out before the rest of them begin flowering and tug and my heartstrings!
So not much really, and I could easily write a list just as big for next week, however if you just put one foot in front of the other, with your head down and your bum up, you’d be surprised how much you could get done.
Come again soon – I’m on quite the mission to become spring ready.
Sarah the Gardener : o)
NB: Clicking on the images will let you know more about them.
