Late night reminders

I was just settling down to a spot of P G Wodehouse (biography rather than Blandings finest) last night when I remembered I hadn’t shut up the beans and peas in the shed. Why it is just about as bad as forgetting to shut up the chooks. Over the winter small beasts have taken to feasting on any peas and broad beans they find uncovered. So I have been forced into devious methods by locking them up into the wire food safes each night. Up in layers of clothing over pjs and torch and everything was snug for the night.

Today was one of those days when more plants (and I mean a mass planting) took place in all areas of the garden. Mind you after a few hours it turned into a trowel hunting session as I didn’t work at the plants systematically. Come inside for a cup of tea and another log on the fire and you can’t remember which area of the garden you were planting up last.

The lilac bed, the herb bed, lawn bed (no idea what we call that, the little bed that delineates the lawn from the vegetable garden . But I put in some white echinacea). The terrace, the shade garden. And in the gloaming even started on the grasses on the bank above the pool.

Surely this is gardening at its most promising. When the plants actually push their way through the bark chip mulches I have put down I will add some compost around their nascent selves and keep them in minerals and muck. i just hope all the plants can cope with our slightly acidic soil. It’s one of those fundamental issues that I have tended to ignore whilst chasing after favourite plants. And I know I am probably going to pay for it. But I will try and improve their chances with lots of home made compost first. Planted heaps more of these lovely Salvia Caradona plants. I need to bulk out the herb bed with some fun things. Mind you there are plenty of Allium purple sensation bulbs in here. I kept almost stepping on them when I was placing the plants. So once they go over hopefully the vibrant blues of the salvias will shine out.