Back to basics

After yesterdays’s venture into chemicals it was back to basics today.

I weeded the potager.

Well I wanted to get some carrots for a casserole I was making.

And that meant wading into this particular vegetable bed and having a good rummage.

I have self sown cerinthe major plants here; gorgeous as cut flowers, but a bit too happy in this rich soil.

So I yanked out half of them – nice juicy additions to the compost heap – and then found my way down to the carrots.

It’s such a relief to lift them and know the mole rat hasn’t beaten me to it.

Well some of them are decidedly stumpy. But I gave up thinning carrots years ago. I just cast the seeds about and leave them to fight it out among themselves.

I have some stonking large parsnips in here as well. But I’m leaving them for Christmas lunch.

But when you are weeding anywhere here; it does mean that bramble removing is not far away.

I have cut back all the beasts on the path and growing out of the rocks  behind on the barn wall.

There is quite an impressive nettle infestation here. Great for adding to the compost. But oh so tedious. They always find the gap between your glove and your sleeve.

I don’t dare add anything more to my winter garden task list. But maby in early spring I might lift all the plants in this long bed that abuts the rock wall. Weed thoroughly, and edit the plants. 

I think I’ll just give in and accept that the verbena bonariensis plants are the best thing here. And trying to keep any tired old strawberies, or other flowers going is just madness.

I want to make a little chestnut fence to go along this long wall too. My verbenas lean out and grab at anyone ambling down the path.

Here’s a reminder of the glories of mass planting.

I do stake them using simple reinforcing rods bent into shapes. But the time has come to corral them properly.

I have started stockpiling the sticks (well, the ones I haven’t shoved through the chipper) and just need to do some deft wire work to attach them.  It will need to be a temporary fence; and one that is easy to open and allow me to reach in and weed. If there is one thing I have learned this week – weeds are a constant and cannot be ignored.