Turning Into My Mother

After I waved the boys off this morning (“have fun storming the castle!”) I turned my attention to the garden, specifially my vegetable plot.

I’ve been nursing some seedlings along for the past wee while. Sadly I lost the cucumbers (apparently they REALLY mean it when they say cucumbers don’t like to be transplanted) and have already put out some of the lettuce and mesculun (salad mix). My zucchini/courgettes though, were calling to me. Some of them were starting to fade in their little plastic pots and, since the weather here is turning warmer, I decided it was time to transplant a few.

I built a trellis out of electrical conduit and trellis netting, pounded some rebar into the ground and slid the trellis on top. (I have it on good authority that this will do the job. I’m skeptical and will be ready with the guy wires assuming my vines ever grow up the thing).

I then fetched my beloved, long-nursed zucchini seedlings out in to the garden. I gently up-ended the pot and eased them out….and promptly snapped the stems on three of them. I had actually started a lot more plants than I thought I would need, thinking I could share some with the neighbours, but it looks like the neighbours will have to fend for themselves, because, as I put the plants in the ground I managed to snap the stem on one more. Of the six plants I handled this morning, two are now in the ground and still attached to their roots. (I put the others in the ground anyway, and covered them with dirt, just in case they felt like growing new roots along their stems, but I’m not optimistic.) I still have one back-up plant hiding out here with me in the office, so if tragedy befalls the two that made it, all is not lost. Yet.

After that, and a bit of general weeding, I made some wire cages for the seedlings, put a shade cloth on the trellis since the sun decided to make an  unscheduled appearance, elected to wait until later to put out the pepper and (more) salad seedlings, tidied up, swept the deck and decided to take a well-earned sit down in the still morning-shady corner of said deck.

At which exact moment a squad of workies pulled up across the street and started to do this.

At the risk of sounding like my mother…oh, too late.

Garden Fun

We had one of those March weekends where the boys get the sandpit open and ask for the pool and don’t believe me when I say it might snow tomorrow.

Of course, I don’t really believe it either and I start casting a critical eye on the garden. I have Plans. They have not come to fruition yet, and might not this year, but I decided to make a start, by neatening up my existing flower beds. It was good exercise and it kept me out in the daylight longer than normal, and I was in a great mood for the rest of the day. Coincidence?

By the next day, of course, it was cold and rainy (as you’ll see in the pictures, along with the wonderful clay soil. Note to self: must get compost soon.)

Anyhoo, it’s not very impressive but, just for my own records, here’s what I did:

Gave the bed around the buddleia a real edge

Edged last year’s newest bed. This one has a large purple plant in it that was my birthday present last year from a friend. I’m not sure if it’ll come back, but I’m hopeful.

Edged and tidied up the bed by the porch. This one has daffodils and tulips making their way up. It’s probably going to help the tulips that, this year, they won’t be in the shade of a large pear tree by the time they try to bloom. In fact, it’ll be interesting to see what the lack of the aforementioned large tree does to the rest of the front garden…

I also cut back my butterfly bush quite dramatically. I really like cutting and slashing and digging and ripping up. I get a bit overwhelmed when all the plants start to grow. I need to embrace ‘pinching’ and ‘pruning’ and ‘thinning’ more.

There’s lots more to do, but it’s been quite wet since then, and there’s not point breaking my tools in the cement-like clay when there’s plenty more spring to come.