Senior moments

Here’s a typical tale. I needed to find spare hoses to fill up the clean but empty water butts up at the potting shed. So I went down to one of the cellars to look for them as I couldn’t remember where we stored them last autumn. Instead I noticed that there is only one pallet of wood on the floor of the cellar and plenty of room for more. Hmm, I thought, wouldn’t it be great to move the three that are propped up rather unattractively outside my potting shed and get them out of the way. I really ought to bring them down. Hoses forgotten, I trudged back through the barn and positioned the wheel barrow half way up the path so I could carry them back with care. (The path has a large rocky outcrop half way up so I can’t get the barrow all the way.)

But no, I thought, stick to your original task. So I abandoned the wheel barrow mid path and went in search of the hoses again. They were up at the top potager, a place I haven’t really visited since a quick inspection on Sunday. Goodness look at those weeds poking out of the asparagus bed. I’ll just pull a few while I’m up here. Then I decided to give all the raspberries and rhubarb a good watering while I was here. But the watering can was in the potting shed. Down the chestnut steps then up, and watered like mad.

Back with an armful of the hoses down to the lawn to try and link them up. Forgot the connector box of tricks up at the shed. Up I went again. Suddenly realised that I had really planned to pot up the mint as the roots were sprouting in their pots. Then as I moved the mint I saw that the verbena bonariensis needed sorting too. That freed up space on the table for more vegetable seedlings so I sowed more corn. And then found the cleome seeds that I had brought up meaning to sow them too. They never germinate (well my success rate is about 10 per cent) so I have to overdo the sowing in the wild hope I get some lovely plants. A snow storm blew up as I potted up the clematis but it didn’t rain. So back to the hoses again to try and get the water up to the original water butts beside the shed. Why this isn’t really gardening I thought to myself; it’s just Alzheimer’s with exercise.

And to punish myself for such erratic habits I planted out all the potatoes. Belle de Fontenay, Charlotte and Pink Fir Apple. Back breaking. Boring, but at least I didn’t have to put down any fabric first. I intend to dump the lawn clippings between the rows to keep down the weeds. And if they get too weedy, well hell, it’s just potatoes, they will cope.