Nearly ready.
I have been throwing myself into the garden to get it spring ready. In normal circumstances, for most gardeners here, the start of spring begins with the calendar and the first day of spring is the first day of September. Some, but not many go with the equinox three weeks later. I think most are just champing at the bit to get started and those three weeks are a leap too far. Looking at the phenology in the surrounding plants and the seasonal changes they make, the calendar spring is the most logical.
For me, I finally trust, in my frost-free environment that I can go early – in the same way a rock climber clings to the rope. My tentative experience tells me I can bring everything a month forward, but it still feels wrong. So, I still grow extras and spares – just in case and keep double checking the weather forecasts, soil thermometers, my weather station history data, and any other metric that will give me trust in what I’m about to do.
Another consequence of the legitimately ‘going early’ – rather than the hopeful, eager, yet futile attempts of trying to ‘get a jump on the season’ that doesn’t need it and ultimately creates more effort than is required compared to going at the right time – is I need to get everything ready a month earlier than I normally would. Ordinarily I waft through winter, baulking at the hint of a breeze or a couple of degrees under what a good beanie and thick socks would fix and languish in the warm of indoors, wishing away the days until spring. Now I’m out there doing some panic work!
The greenhouse is always a source of clutter at this time of year after a season of lobbing things in there at the end of the day or during midsummer projects, promising myself I’ll sort it later, which I never do. There is always something way more exciting going on in the garden than tidying up. With the start of seed sowing approaching fast this becomes something that needs immediate attention and moves to the top of the list. It always feels satisfying in the middle of the job to stand in the empty greenhouse with its floor swept clean, the benches washed, disinfected, and treated with linseed oil and its windows polished. The potential of the new season awaits. Then I have to bring everything back in and organise them in a way that looks tidy and makes the most sense for a smooth seed sowing season that can become quite chaotic at times.
The other pressing job is the pot washing. I could have done it at any time in the last12 months, but it isn’t a glamorous job and I’ve long since stopped believing myself when I suggest doing it straight after the pots are vacated by their occupants. The saving grace of pot washing in winter is adding hot water to the disinfectant rinse so I can plunge my cold hands into the comforting warmth, where it is preferable to keep going rather than head outside into the cold.
The garden itself is in a good position, and I have removed all overgrown trace of the previous season. While it feels odd not to have as many overwintering crops or green manures ready to chop down, thanks to the autumnal travel that caused several windows of time to be missed, it has allowed a clear blank canvas to roll out my new square metre of sorts change to the layout of the garden. All I need to do now is enrich and replenish each square metre of garden bed for the needs of the new occupants. Managing one square metre feels so much easier than dealing with the full length of the raised beds, which at times – if I’m to be honest, felt insurmountable. This new system really embraces the little and often philosophy that makes gardening enjoyable rather than exhausting.
But I can’t sit around here all day chatting, those pots won’t wash themselves!
Come again soon – the new season is so close you can smell it in the air.
Sarah the Gardener : o)