A good walk spoiled

Twas one of those mornings where Murphy ruled.   I launched myself into a mighty strimming session. Down onto the lower terraces where I cut swathes through the forest of weeds.   Nettles, thistles, brambles. All made a happy thwacking sound as I surged through.

And then I ran out of petrol, so up I trudged.   Then I got a bit of green goo in my eye. Back to sort that out. Another terrace and then I ran out of strimmer wire. Up I plodded.   I can tell you it’s marvellous exercise, if a bit uphill. Back down I was all set to give the nettle forest a good seeing to when I discovered a rock.   And I broke the strimmer head. Ugh.

For the first time in five years the mighty strimmer needs to get attended to. I couldn’t find the bit that broke off. But I did swear at the rock.

And I still had terraces and terraces to go. I like to cut the edges with the strimmer and then have a go with the mower. But you have to go so carefully as the rocks hidden under the knee high weeds are like landmines. Or to be modern, IEDs.   I can’t afford to have another bit of lawn mowing kit get damaged. Having to take the strimmer up to the repair shop is panful enough.

Oh, yes, and I almost pitched off one of the terraces as I worked. That was an adrenaline filled moment, I can tell you.

Chastened, I came back up to the main part of the garden and did some safe non combustion engine weeding instead.   If you look carefully at this picture you can see my baby parsnip seedlings poking through.

Mr Helpful didn’t help. He was quite clingy today which is sweet, but I do hate it when he gets in the way of my mulch and my weeds.

I had to leave this bit of the vegetable garden unmulched until he got bored and wandered off.

And I had a mighty potting on session up in the shed as well. It’s that mild panic moment when I realise I’m going away on Friday for a week and things might suffer if they aren’t in the appropriate pot sizes.

So almost all the seedlings went up a size.   The chinese vegetables grow so quickly I can barely keep up.   I’m hoping for some juicy greens from these in a month’s time. If they survive the next week. I’m debating whether to put some out early and see how they do. I have heaps.

And I have almost 200 calendula seedlings which will go with the leeks in the swoosh in each quadrant. They seem to grow as you look.   I may pot them out from their 20 tray without potting them on one more size. They look very robust.

So too the gaura. I have a forest of those as well. So I even planted out some in the terrace bank just to avoid having to pot them up.   Artur came and pestered me and actually bit me as I wasn’t paying him enough attention. Such a fusser. He begged forgiveness in that fetching head butt and yowling act which I fall for every time.   And a very loud purr.

There are so many plants in the potting shed right now that I have run out of bench space. I’m now stacking things on the floor and will have to think about what to do next. But what a fun dilemma. I just have to remember my parasite infested old chicken shed and be grateful for this palace of seeds.

I usually clean up the potting shed before I take a photo. But here it is in all its messy glory.

It did mean that with juggling for space that I located some dwarf french beans which I decided could go out.   And I collected all the nasturtium Cherry Rose Jewel for the courtyard.

These planters were not a success last year. I tried putting diplosperma (succulent plants with garish purple flowers) but everything was so slowed down by drought and absence in May last year that they never really recovered.

And my tulips didn’t even flower this year.   So out everything came and in went new compost, some fertilizer and nastutium plants. Quickly grown from seed. I have high hopes for this batch.

And I planted out the Jewel of Africa plants down in the potager.   If all goes well these are supposed to climb very high – up the new central poles.   So to make sure I give them the best of starts, I planted them in their very own pots with precious floragard compost. And placed them in the central part of the potager in a sunny spot.   It’s getting crowded down there in the central part. But that’s fine. It’s too narrow to comfortably wheel a wheelbarrow, so I just have to edge past all the potential flowers.

And on that note I’m off to say hello to a large whisky and a new book.