The farmer’s tan

Things are so cyclical in gardening. That’s half the pleasure. I am -doing- the strawberries again. It was the first job I did when we started here. They were growing rather wildly over a quarter of the old vegetable bed; runners everywhere and not a lot of fruit. So with Nicolas loan of about 200 pots, I dug them up and stored them in the shade for the summer while work was going on to turn the vegetable bed into a tidy plot.

It’s sunny today but I think the weather is going to turn again. So I am going to get out there while I can and enjoy perfect potager weather. Having called Jan in Australia for the recipe I am also drying tomatoes in the oven. Alack, the oven runs a bit hot so There Will Be Burnt Bits.

Warm work. Decided to cover up the uprooted strawberries while I work. And no, they haven’t been fussily potted into individual containers. They have been hoiked out with a strong fork and dumped into a wheelbarrow. See, progress. But as a concession to the heat they have been draped in a wet drop sheet so won’t die of exhaustion under there.

In for lunch and I reek rather of seaweed fertiliser. I thought that as I am about to inter this soil under a blanket of weedproof fabric I had best give it a last bit of good food. My what a smell. And now it’s in for lunch myself.

Is this the best time of year? Plucking ripe cherry tomatoes off the vines and eating them by the handful as I come indoors. Last night went to Nicolas Tuesday night vegetable club. And two of his friends bake the most amazing loaves of bread. All organic flour and fired in a mighty wood fired bread oven. Chewy and flavoursome and virtuous. I never really believed in bread until we moved here. Sat on the terrace in blazing sunshine eating fresh bread and tomatoes and basil from the garden and marvelling at the view.

In for another break and a relief it is to be away from those blessed strawberry plants. Too tedious for words. But they are getting there and if I admire what I have done I won’t despair of how many dozens more I have to plant. Sometimes it’s only the knowledge that one only does certain chores once that makes it bearable.

Later. I am sunburnt would you believe, farmer’s tan. Arms burnt where they were exposed while I sat on the black fabric and planted strawberries.

Made aubergine pickles and tomato pickles this evening. Took my mind off a decision I had made while I planted out the fruit. They need a mulch. I had though of using woodchips. There are plenty of sticks to collect and then push through the shredder. But the flood has taught me a lesson. Mulches move when wet. So the heavier the mulch the better the protection and less the chance of having to do remedial work. The answer dawned on me and I tried my darndest to push it away. I am going to have to move the river stones back. Well some of them. No, probably all of them. How dispiriting. Wish I came up with garden ideas in the right sequence.