I blame Spring for everything

The updates here are slim right now and I can only offer excuses.  Firstly, a lot of what has been going on in the garden has been rather same samey, which can come across as repetitive and boring.  I’m not sure there are enough descriptive words in the thesaurus to tell you I weeded or chopped down another cover crop and prepared a bed to make it ready for the new growing season.  Seriously – I have 35 raised beds.  This spring preparation just goes on and on and on!

But at this point I only have four beds that need to be liberated of their cool season crops, but we are eating these as fast as we can.  There are also three beds that are good to go, but just need enriching with compost etc and a couple that have long term plants in them that just need a tickle of love to set them up for the new season.  So, progress is being made steadily across the weeks.

The other time thief is computer gardening.  Most of this is what helps to fund the garden so when a deadline looms or a request comes up, then I drop everything and get it done as quickly as I can to please my benefactors but also so I can get back to the garden.  However, the start of spring is a pretty important time in gardening calendar and there is much to be said about it and my poor fingers ache from dancing across the shiny worn-out keys of my keyboard.

And finally, my last excuse is completely out of my control, but does show how much of a wuss I have become.  The weather turned cold, and spring was more winter than winter was this year.  I could have wrapped up warm and pressed on, but I decided I’m not that crazy.  Past Me would have been out there revelling in the bracing chill of it all.  Today Me is ‘yeah nah’.   It has hinted at being nice again, and this temptress of a season reaches out a hand in trust for warmer days, only to dash it all against the next wave of cold sideways rain.

As a placeholder for my presence in this online world, I have made a point of keeping up with things like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as it is easy enough to grab a snapshot that represents the garden in that moment and throw it up on the Great Big Internet.  Having said that last season it all got a bit too much and I let some of them fall by the wayside, which also included my You Tube videos.  They are very time consuming, but I like talking to you like you were in the garden with me, so I am trying to regularly share on that forum again as well.  I have many balls in the air right now but to mix metaphors they say not to put all your eggs in one basket.  If you find I slow down here a little from time to time it might be worth checking out these other places to find me there.

I was talking to my Handy Helper this week about why I do it all and to be honest I don’t know anymore, but I know I would be lost without it.   I did start out to share the love of gardening and to encourage others to pick up a spade and now, while the sentiment is still the same, it has also become just what I do.  I am Sarah the Gardener after all…  It is who I have become.

And so, in a tight timeline of ‘something has gotta give’ this week I made another video.  This one is all about getting my spuds in for the season.  It is 15 minutes long, and so I’m not sure if it is worth getting the popcorn out, so maybe put the kettle on and have a cuppa tea and watch just how crazy fast I have been working lately…  well, I wish, all my problems would be solved if that was the case!

Thanks for bearing with me in this busy time.  It will soon become a bit more interesting, especially as the season progresses and the plants begin to do interesting things.  And thanks for watching my video and checking out my other social media places.

Come again soon – it will warm up and there will be so much to talk about I won’t know where to start!

Sarah the Gardener  : o)