Finally, after a difficult week the sun burst forth and I could go out into the garden and truly lose myself in it. After a miserable spring where more time was spent nipping out to the garden to do a few quick things before the next shower. The terrible week was framed with high winds and solid rain, which set the scene for the shock … Continue reading What’s Bean Happening?
My strawberries, historically have had a bit of a rough ride. I would just take the goods until they slowed down and then would neglect them until it was time to start to think of them again. This was generally in August in late winter where I’d be out there in the freezing cold trying to disentangle the patch from a jungle of weeds as … Continue reading Straw for the Strawberries
Over the years my garden has grown in more ways than one. Each season the plants grow to flourish and create a bounty of food. Although some years there is less of the flourishing and more of the failing. But that is ok. Some seasons just aren’t ideal for pumpkins or garlic or whatever crop it is that makes you hang your head in shame. … Continue reading I’ve been rescued from myself
Sometimes when you are working so hard on something, that all you can see is what is ahead of you, all you still have to do. The wood becomes lost in the trees. So you put your head down and your butt up and you keep pushing through because you know if you keep at it you will get there in the end. The thing … Continue reading Pretty as a picture
Now that most of the plants are in place, I can begin to think of the next phase of the garden with enthusiasm. I have been really looking forward to this stage. It is the only real gentle period in the garden aside from winter. But winter is full of frustration as the plants to tend are few and far between and even if there … Continue reading Plans in place
I’m nearly there. I just have beans and zucchini, squash, herbs, cucumbers and melons left to go into the garden. The good thing about the cucumbers is their bed is ready and waiting and the frame is up, ready to support outreached tendrils as they grow towards the sun. The only thing holding things up at this point is the cucumbers themselves. I’d like them … Continue reading It is all in the little things
Finally I’ve been in the garden, and it was about time too! Slowly but surely I eased myself back into it like a swimmer trying to get into a freezing cold pool. I didn’t want to rush and set myself back. However a neglected garden can be a daunting thing. Where to start? Do you tackle the produce that is ready to harvest, protect the … Continue reading The Late Spring Harvest
I will happily close the door on this spring. It has been challenging in more ways than one with its wild and tempestuous ways. Each August I begin to anticipate a ‘calendar perfect’ kind of spring, you know the type – each month is represented with photos of lambs, daffodils, gentle rain and perfect tulips. There is no hint to the wild weather that leave … Continue reading With less than a week until Summer
I have too many excuses for not gardening at the moment and every single one is driving me to despair. It is too windy. The wind has been whipping up a frenzy across the garden. Not enough to cause damage, but enough to be annoying and make the gardening conditions a little unpleasant. On its own this could be something to push through and garden … Continue reading Reading not Gardening
My poor orchard has been left to its own devices yet again. I have seemed to have developed a do or die attitude with the trees down the end, in the ultimate low maintenance gardening style. However orchards aren’t meant to be low maintenance. They have wants and needs like everything else. But sometimes when life knocks the wind out of your sails, something has … Continue reading Fruitfulness in spite of it all
