Ok, it is Tuesday, and I may have started without you, but I think I have formulated a vague plan for the week to get ahead and become spring ready. According to my countdown to spring giveaway over on my Facebook page, there are only 8 days until spring. Eek… Time is pressing on. Even the benefit of being confined to home during this latest lockdown, doesn’t change things for me at all and I feel busier than ever!
This week I have decided it will be the last big push for big projects as the focus. After that they will need to fit in around spring things. So, I have been working on creating the path around the rock in The Palace. I won’t be able to completely finish it as I won’t be able to get more concrete until the lockdown levels drop. Strangely enough bags of cement aren’t essential items. But at least I can finish it for as far as I can go and then focus on the next tasks this garden needs on its journey to completion. Getting it finished is time dependant as there is an external deadline to create some content for my favourite garden magazine.
My eye is also on the eddy windbreak and strawberry recovery plan. This is kind of time pressing because August is the month to plant and sort out the strawberries. I just need to make it happen. I think if I alternate the days between the strawberries and The Palace, noticeable change will happen.
I’ve also decided to take a little and often approach to sowing seeds for spring. Normally I do them mostly in one go and it sucks the joy right out of it after hour three! As a result, I’ve drawn up a list of timely sowings that I can do every few days or so in less than an hour. That way by the time I get to the speedy but cold hating cucumbers and pumpkins I’ll still find it as exciting as the first peppers I sowed a few weeks ago.
I managed to get almost everything done last week. Hubby the Un-Gardener did a fab job of chopping down the lupin cover crop. So, all I have to do now is wait for them to rot down under the compost and we’re good to go. This should take around 6 – 8 weeks and there is just over 8 weeks before the safe for planting out date so I’m all good. There are 2 mustard cover crops left, but that should be easy enough for me to manage.
And we didn’t get the guttering back up but that’s ok, it’s not raining, and it is a short task for this week. Added to this week is I want a day of just going list-less. I want to stand in the garden and tackle the most pressing things I find and then bounce to the next one and so on until I run out of day. I suspect this will be mostly planting things that should have been out of their pots and in the ground a long time ago.
Then next week I will become more regimented with my sector system for weeding and bed maintenance and redevelop the routine and rhythm that gets me through the craziness of the growing season. On the upside my planned extended absence from the garden in late spring has been cancelled, so a little pressure has been removed from the spring preparations.
Come again soon – lets just see how far I get with these projects.
Sarah the Gardener : o)
For a moment there I thought that first photo was a socially distanced sandpit feature!
I was gearing up to make some raised beds for this year’s veggie garden, but I’ll have to wait until the compost selling people reopen – whenever that may be. C’est la vie!
It is a little frustrating not being able to access what we need but in the long run it is for the best. Stay safe! : o)
WOW! I am speechless!
Thanks so much – I’ve been putting in a lot of hard work lately! : o)