It seems a shame not to plant every bulb

I hadn’t planned to go up again today but I need to dash up and do the garlic. The bulbs need cold to get going – and we just haven’t had the weather. But listening in bed this morning to the weather forecast there was glee in the voice of the presenter – frost tonight; and cold next week. Hurrah. My garlic may just have a chance. So if I go now, I will have time to put them in, race back, do my Greenland script work, sort my office, go and get my laptop (having software installed), photocopy pictures of Mary Kingsley for the Tarzan script project, learn how to drive the scanner, learn how to set up a website to place the pictures on the website, and then have tea with Sally back in Primrose Hill. All the while not looking a my just arrived copy of Grow Your Own magazine that is begging attention, and the packets of seeds in the cupboard which need to be sorted and placed in their special anti- mouse box.

Later. Well the garlic is in and it took a lot more time that I thought as I had to place the weed proof plastic over first. I’m short of those clever long metal pegs. So I had to nick them from other parts of the plot that seem more stable. But the concept looks fine. Mine is a big lumpy mind you. I suspect the soil should have been perfectly raked and groomed before I covered it up, but I didn’t manage it. I’m still at the lumpy clump soil right now. And I didn’t have a sharp knife to cut clever holes in the fabric to place the garlic cloves in. But I struggled on. I think it will be easier when it comes to planting seedlings. I did three rows. Goodness only knows what I was thinking. But I bought the packets and it seems a shame not to plant every bulb. And I even put in three of those odd elephant garlic bulbs too. Mice will probably chomp the lot – or the slugs will have an uninterrupted go at them hidden under the protective layer. But at least it’s worth a try. I don’t want to have another year of weeding like the last. Especially as it’s now further to drive and I may even be in France tending to my trees.