foolhandy

I did some gardening yesterday. The wonderful weather was there to be made the best of and so I cleared some of the longer grass around the edges, mowed the lawns, watered the potted plants and rhubarb and started work on our vegetable growing.

This was quite a moment, as I’ve never grown vegetables in my own garden before. Vegetables in other gardens and flowers in my own but not like this. The aim eventually is to have raised beds but we want those on the side next to the soon-to-be-replaced fence so I’ve delayed doing anything about them. In addition I bought a considerable number of small plants from the school gardening club and they needed planting.

As you can see I’ve had to lift the turf in a couple of places on the lower lawn. There are purple cabbages, runner beans, shallots & cauliflowers all planted a bit too close together… It was only once I’d dug out the first patch that I realised just how much I’d underestimated the amount of space I was going to need for the plants I had bought, and even though I then dug a second patch I think they’re going to crowd each other. We’ll see how they get on with limited personal space in the coming weeks. Incidentally, am I the only one getting a freshly-filled-grave vibe here?!

The garden’s looking reasonable at the moment. The sheds still require expletive prefixes and the new fence (when it happens!) will help but it’s not the place I was despairing with a month or so ago. Amazing what a bit of summer sun can do… My only complaint really is the almost complete lack of colour other than green. There are a number of red rose buds preparing to bloom just behind where this picture was taken but apart from that it’s down to the orange anti-dog netting the previous owners put up to break the monotony. That’ll be a goal for next year then.