Spuds I like

With the sun setting gently in the Ardeche mountains to the south, I buried my last boa constrictor.   Just kidding, they are spuds.

Two long rows of Belle de Fontenay, two smallish rows of Charlotte in the potager, and one monster row of Charlottes up in the top vegetable garden.

Two quadrants of the potager are now complete. Not bad for mid March.   But having watched the British Gardener’s World on tv last night I can’t believe how far behind our crops are this year.   Things are decidedly ungreen.  

Well there are a few buds on the soft fruit bushes; the jostaberries and the currants look like they are going to be first up, along with one of Teo’s little gooseberries.

And I think I see the first of the daffs coming along.   Not my beautiful white Thalias, but the inherited garish yellow ones that Ine must have planted years ago.   They pop up just below the fig tree every year. And every year I try to remind myself to dig them up and just enjoy the swoosh of white instead.

And there is a blast of blossom on the mad almond tree that sprouts out of the rock below our terrace. I forgot to photograph it today as I trundled past with wheelbarrow and spud planting accoutrement.

But I didn’t have time for such fripperies today. It was charge head down and get a huge lot of stuff done.

The most plodding is to move the plants somewhere safe.   I can’t keep things in the potting shed as it gets too hot and I don’t have anyone handy to water every day.   So with the wheelbarrow stacked to the brim, I take all the little seedlings and plants to the shade of the open barn 40 metres down a wonky track. It’s excitingly precarious, but it cuts down on the laps I have to do.

Most of the little seedlings are cabbage and oriental salad leaves and lettuce and eryngiums.   And I moved all the cuttings that aren’t putting out roots, and of course all the newly sowed seeds.

These hide in their pots in plastic bags to try and keep in all the moisture.   If all goes well they should germinate and be busting out of their little pots by the time I come back at the end of the month. I have put them on the big dining table that lives out in the calabert as well.   And I have a few more large trays of eragrostis curvula seeds to go out as well. I just have to rummage about and try and find some plastic bags large enough to engulf them. I was sure I had some in the potting shed, but didn’t want to pull things about once I had tidied everything away.

Needless to say the potting shed is eerily neat and clean and empty.   Artur will get a shock when next he stalks back in. I’ve left the door open and lots of pots of fresh water for the little cat.   But it’s going to be a dull ten days for him.

I managed to find a great little chore during the heat of the day. Chipping the last of the sticks in the shade of the east garden near the wisteria.   I need to go out and collect lots more sticks next month (hah! In my spare time).   But I had enough to cover the day lilies that are just emerging in the little bed in the courtyard.   And also to cover the newly planted phlomis up in the shade garden.   You can’t really tell where the mulch is.   Boy do I need to weed and mulch this huge garden some time next month.

But for now a teensy bit is properly weeded and mulched and lots of daffs and tulips are slowly emerging.

And on that happy spring note I sign off. Dying to get out of these grubby clothes and turn into a human being again. Back later in the month.