Which are perennials or annuals?

I sat on an upturned box in the sun in the middle of my plot admiring the view and marvelling at the sunshine. This was my first guilt free day of gardening this year. I could garden till the light ended. And I abandoned the spade after five lovely hours of work, delighted with progress.

Today’s main chore was to edge all the way to the end of the plot. Cutting the grass on the path, and digging down so that I can lay planks to protect the edge from weeds. I was encroaching into Jana’s plot in a big way – I think I have 130 feet of garden now, must measure it next time. Mick suggested I plant potatoes there to open up the soil.  It throws my vaguely thought out design plans awry, and I have to get permission from David, the plot secretary first anyway.

Its great to get the bits of soil turned over that have been lurking under a heavy blanket of old carpet for a year. I will need to get on my hands and knees and extract the long couch grass roots and the occasional startlingly white bindweed roots; but not yet. The bindweed roots are amazingly thick and treacherous. You know that if you drop them on the ground they will grow, chop them in half they will grow, and you need to be vigilant in getting them out of the soil. I pop them into my pocket and find them days later when I reach in for my secateurs. My mud encrusted trousers now reside all chill and stiff at the shed as they are way too muddy to wear on the drive home.

Today’s sunshine has also been accompanied by two days without rain and it’s much easier to dig the ground. I dug out the huge stems of the red kale, removed the oldest mangiest cabbage stalks but kept some of the purple sprouting broccoli as they seem to be continuing to produce good tasty leaves. And I didn’t pull out some of the old flowers from the ‘cutting garden patch’.  I just don’t know if they are viable – times like these you realise how green you are to this gardening thing. I don’t even know which are perennials or annuals. Some of the flowers from last year look so bushy and healthy I couldn’t bring myself to yank them out. We shall see. Same goes with my cabbage. I have no idea if they will keep on. I shall furtively inspect my Vietnamese neighbour’s cabbage plot and follow suit. (Their broad beans are in the soil and romping away.)