A spot of weeding

A teetering pile of weeds indeed. And this was my third load.  For the first time in two months (exactly) I have crept down to my main vegetable garden and Attacked.

Dead sunflower stalks, a forest of dead cosmos, skeletoned beans and basil stalks. They were all there waiting for me.

I know I can’t possibly repair all the damage, but at least I can get out the major weeds and prepare some of the beds for next years brassica batch.

Out came dead and dying tomatoes, aubergines, beans, beans and more beans, and flower stalks.

I can’t say it was fun being here; there’s just too much major damage that I have to repair, but at least you can see the beds now.

And once I’ve unloaded all the office accoutrement tomorrow, I’ll have lots of Ikea blue bags free to fill up on horse manure and get the beds covered in good goo.

I’m playing an indoor outdoor game. Each morning, up and check the forecast and see if I’m going to sort my newly cleaned and empty office, or trot out and do some gardening.

Gardening is winning. And today my able assistant oozed up to the top vegetable garden to await my arrival. Had he read my To Do List too?

He’s madly active for about an hour and a bit in the morning following me about. And then it’s all a bit much and he has to go to the potting shed for a brief six hour snooze.

(My drop down menu to size pictures isn’t working; everything seems to be very large and very right.)

But this perfect cool and clement weather gave me time to kneel beside the asparagus bed, cut down the old stalks and weed the row as I went.

It’s a bit damp up here in the top vegetable bed, so Artur found it most comfortable to stand on the backs of my legs as I kneeled to keep his paws dry. It’s a modified version of leg and calf surfing which he has perfected.

It’s quite funny too, but it did mean that I couldn’t stand up and move the cut stalks. And I had to do a sort of undignified shuffle with a surfing cat behind me as I went up the row.

Next up (and freed from any feline restrictions) I dug buckets and buckets of soil from the supply at the top hedge.  These I piled on the gaps in the shade garden where the flood had stripped the soil. And I added heaps to the walnut bed which was similarly denuded.

And to celebrate, I planted 100 anenome blanda corms in among the plants.  They are odd looking things; more dessicated bits of dog pooh rather than plants. But here’s hoping they thrive and don’t get flooded any time soon.

I decided on a belt and braces approach to this part of the garden. It does flood in heavy rain. So I’ve added a long pipe of special drainage material down the vertical slope next to the walnut tree.

I don’t dare show you a picture as I still can’t work out how to make left handed thumb nail shots of the dull bits.  And let’s face it, making drains is dull. But – no wait! A restart of the computer and the drop down menus have unfrozen. That’s a relief.

So here is the drain in glorious squint and you miss it size.

Now all I need is a low wall. And praise be, Nicolas has said that he can come and work for one day on Friday this week.  And I have just the job for him.  A low wall that will follow the contours of this bed.  I have saved the best of the granite stones from the wall that fell down in the flood, and there is a huge pile just waiting to be used in the east garden.

But I have found a solution for most of the boulders.  A rill running down the middle of the courtyard between our two houses.  A February fun project for our star builders.  Any excuse to drive the mini digger for Bebere. I wonder if he’ll let me have a go?