This time its vegetables that I am attempting to get into the ground today, and it's ground that until just very recently has been entirely covered by weeds and roots, hedging and all manner of garden detritus. At the end of the lawn is the previous owner's flower bed, surrounded by plants with seeds to scatter for next summer, which I will be collecting and scattering about the newly turned and cleared soil. However, where I want to plant most of the veggies is partially covered by stone slabs, interspersed with blocks of earth which, |I am pretty sure, will be jolly hard for me to dig, so I'm calling in extra digging assistance.
Gardening is wonderful isn't it, and growing your own food, brilliant, particularly for the creative cook, which is how I like to categorise myself. However, beginning to dig and bend and scrabble about the lays of a new plot, can be most injurious to the poor gardener - me again! The exercise is great and it is really thrilling to be in charge of a new planting scheme but one simply has to be careful about diving into a new digging venture. Ones back simply must be given the greatest amount of consideration, patience and time since it's so very easy, in the flush of excitement, to strain and chill. You have to do a little weeding, a little clearing and then some digging and then rest a while, to give your body time to acclimatize itself to a new exercise regime, in order to avoid overdoing it. There's absolutely no point at all, madly dashing about the garden, doing everything all at once, just to end up with an aching back, and having to rest up for the remainder of the week or weekend!
Patience is a great virtue, especially in the garden, and timing and thinking, by which I mean, you have to garden early in the morning before the sun becomes too hot, as it was doing in July. Then learn to circumnavigate the rain and dig in your new plants either just before, or just after, a downpour, then rest on your laurels and plan your next move, whilst it's actually raining, to prepare yourself for the next dry period.
So, I'm planting out a new vegetable garden, pruning and tidying up in another garden, continuing the planting and weeding in my first garden which began with the plants I brought home from Kew Gardens at the beginning of June and, now, planning what to do with a new plot of garden given to me just last week - which is absolutely smashing, having a stretch of earth just for me to do with whatever I want to do. I also continue to garden with my own garden, within a friend's garden, which is container gardening of herbs and viola and an assortment of other plants which I'm planning to spread out into the main bedding area, to enable me to grow more herbs.
I just love planting herbs and not just for the kitchen, but all manner of ones from angelica and lovage, to whatever can be found at the various garden centres in Oxfordshire and at Kew gardens, of course! Most of my herb plantings have taken place in containers, resulting in careful watering and pruning, to keep things looking good, so now to have actual space for them to spread and increase in size, is very thrilling.
With my new vegetable plants I fully realise I may be chancing my luck just too much, as the growing season is in full swing, and there simply may not be sufficient time for the plants to develop and produce an edible crop to harvest; but a freshly dug and tilled plot simply begs to be filled up with new plants - so that's what I am doing and, frankly, hoping for the best. I think that's what you must do, learn from what happens and grows, and put that experience to best use for the following year's planting scheme.
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| A view of Kew Gardens |
I also have to sketch out my various planting schemes, to enable me to see which flowers and plants have gone where and how, so that I know where everything is so, where did I put that graph paper - isn't it irritating not being able to find something???
I wish I had my own potting shed!
Toodle oo
Daisy
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