The spring cleaning continues.
As we enter the early days of spring, nothing much has changed in the garden. It is always my intention to be so productive over the winter months that the moment the season changes I can waft about the garden doing spring things like sowing seeds, pulling the occasional weed, smelling the daffodils and throwing myself into some kind of fun project that adds beauty and interest to the garden experience, while I wait for the conditions to become welcoming to a season’s worth of seedlings.
It is never like that, but I live in hope. I think my biggest problem is my winter list is too big considering there is essentially less time available, with the days being actually shorter and days off for rain, cold and horrible weather. I never learn. So, this spring is no different to any other spring and I’m still doing weeding and garden bed preparations.
Although this season isn’t too bad. I’ve been sowing seeds in small batches every day. Well, I was until I ran out of seed raising mix and need to get some more. But the little and often approach is working well. With the staggered sowing means every day someone new has popped out of the damp earth and it is a delight to greet them. The other upside is it is easy to keep the greenhouse tidy. I don’t walk away from seed sowing sessions exhausted and promising myself I’ll tidy up next time. It is with great pride that I put away my tools and sweep up. It is as close to spring ‘wafting’ as I’ve ever been.
I don’t expect it will stay like that because at some point everything will begin demanding transplanting into larger pots, and my small collection of seed trays will explode into a multitude of plants in pots all jostling for the best space in the sun and making the greenhouse suddenly feel a tad small and a touch chaotic.
I will say in the main body of the garden – sectors one, two and three are in relatively good shape. The weeds are, for the most part banished and with a weekly tickle they should remain that way for the rest of the growing season. I say this with great optimism as the ‘little and often’ approach works well if you start with a thorough going over to remove every last trace.
The cover crops have finally been cut down and the micro communities have begun the process of breaking them down to incorporate into the soil. I discovered this as I evicted some opportunistic weeds who were attempting to establish under the cover of the decaying cover crops. As I pushed everything aside to pull out the offenders by the root, loads of woodlice and other creatures scurried away. I put everything back as it was – minus the weeds, so they could continue their good work.
The only thing I would like to do before saying things are ready is to put compost on the beds as final loving tuck in, well in advance of the new occupants, to give things time to settle down. Although to be fair the main thing stopping me is moving compost is heavy work, so I’m trying to snag Hubby the Un-Gardener in a moment of free time to give me a hand. But I’m not overly worried at this point, there is still plenty of time.
Now that I can say this main productive part of the garden is spring ready I can turn my attention to the rest of the garden. When you take your eyes off all but the most important things in the garden, it can get unruly in the corners really quickly. It seems like the weeds between the cracks in the pavers at the backdoor have doubled in size overnight and every time I walk past I promise myself I’ll sort it out soon. But there are more than a few places across the greater garden area that cry out for attention in the same way.
The best way forward is with the ‘little and often’ approach. There is no point bursting a foo-foo valve, we’ll get there in the end. I need to remember my new mindful gardening attitude – ‘it’s supposed to be fun.’ I’m certainly not going to get het up and stressed out over it.
The other important thing is to keep on top of what has already been done. So before starting on any new messy area, I need to revisit everywhere I’ve already been and take a moment to check for new weeds, encroaching mess and unexpected chaos and sort things out. The priority is keeping what I’ve already done in respectable control and then bring new areas into the embrace of the weekly tickle after giving it the left-over time for a thorough going over.
I feel confident that this spring will reveal a clean, tidy and organised garden that won’t need a lot of time to keep it that way, freeing up plenty of time for the fun projects.
Come again soon – this season will be a joy and a pleasure as I evict weeds left, right and centre.
Sarah the Gardener : o)