Strawberry swimming fields

Don’t you just love cliches? I have put straw around the strawberries. And collecting the hay gave me hay fever. I sneezed all the way up from the stables to the vegetable garden. And I refuse to do any more mulching this week. I am all sneezed out. It all looks rather yellow- but the weed collection in the strawberry bed was impressive. I don’t think I had neglected that part of the garden; but goodness the poor plants were positively swamped. Hopefully they will keep flowering and maybe fruiting.

Everything around the house is suddenly lush. And it may be time to launch the strimmer. Is that like the first campari of spring event? The first cuckoo, the first need to test the strimmer?

Today wasn’t a full gardening day. But I launched myself into the weeding in between rainstorms. Watered more of the little seedlings in the potting shed (not eaten by rodents overnight, such a relief) and spent ages sawing up the poles for the climbing beans, sweet peas and cucumbers. Some are decidedly wonky. I didn’t range too far up into the forest to search for straight ones. But when time allows, I will replace with ramrod straight ones before I get the plants up and climbing.

Tomorrow, if all goes well, I will get some more potting compost from the garden centre and get some more seeds into some soil.

The rain is having consequences for the terraces. They are positively weeping. The strawberry bed ressembles a swimming pool where the water is gurgling out of the stones. And the terraces around the pool are very soggy. The drain below the wall works well – it is gushing out. Naturally we are going to yearn for all this rain in the summer. But right now I just can’t collect more than I have. It’s overflowing all the containers I have around the garden.

The tulips are almost out. And the narcissus are holding on wonderfully. Can’t smell a thing with this cold, but I admire their ability to stand so proud with all this rain. They form part of what I understand is a ‘white’ garden. These mystery plants are doing their part. And the wistaria is about a week away from blooming. Even the white lilac looks threatening. I sowed a few white ‘milkmaid’ nasturtium seeds directly into the soil under the lilac. But naturally have some on the go in the potting shed as well. Never do trust nasturtiums to germinate without nurturing and fussing.