Green goo

Bastille day – to celebrate I trimmed as much wisteria as I could reach (and that isn’t far, I do miss the roofers’ ladders which were here for months). Took out a forest of branches from the tree at the entrance to the house. Deutsia, philadelphis, syringia. Who knows? But it’s a dud. All flower and no scent. And the flowers were brief indeed. So with Nicolas’s help I hacked and chopped and it still looks monstrous and a bit top heavy. I even found an oak sapling in among the branches. Poor thing was starved for light. It will need another go. But no time. No time.

Back to the week’s main activities : weeding and weedproofing. I found some lettuce hidden under weeds that Daisy missed. So I saved them and will plant them later in a better protected row.

Jane has been performing heroic deeds on the weeds in the strawberry bed. It seems to be a theme for visiting houseguests. Jan did a day’s work here earlier in the year. And later when there is a second crop in September (hah!) I will dig them all up, put down a good layer of fabric, and then plant the poor plants back into the soil. They can’t endure this choking each month as they do now.

Actually had time to lay one of the quadrants of the vegetable bed to fabric, and then started on the lettuce bed. And there are radish and beetroot in their somewhere.

Each pass I would kill yet more red bugs on the cabbage. Gendarmes they are called I think, and their babies which are bright yellow. But they have the same trick as their parents, at the first sign of threat they drop on their backs and plummet to the earth. Black under bellies, black earth. Go figure. So it’s hard work getting them all. Not to mention the vile green goo on your hands afterwards.