No, fortunately not!
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| The edge of my plot |
When my mother ordered me to clean the rabbit hutch, my 10 year old self moaned, but now that I have reached the age of a grandmother my heart lifts when it is time to visit my allotment garden, and I think of all the chores waiting there. It is like going to visit my best friend.
Topping up the frog pond, fun! Turning the valve of my water tank too far and thus topping up my boots with freezing water...not so much, but hey, it's all gardening, so it's part of my happy experience. And especially today, when the sun shows itself after a rare frosty night and the temperature in the greenhouse was high enough to shed my coat.
Talking about that pond, some animal (cat?) had played around with my pristine pebbles, they were spread out in a no doubt pleasing pattern to them. I scraped them back to where they belong, all the while thinking about a quote by my favourite quote writer, R.W. Emerson: " The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions". Ai, hope that does not apply to the mind of that cat (?), otherwise I can look forward to pebble art for the foreseeable future.
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| Ice, ice, baby! |
Washing the greenhouse windows, rewarding! The old man who built it had whitewashed them before he stopped gardening, but that white coat had turned green with algae, not a pretty sight. I am slowly removing it, 3 windows at a time. So more splashing with freezing water involved, not that my already soaked socks minded. I am very grateful to that man by the way, for it turns out he planted many spring bulbs (as well as enough veg to feed the entire town). They are shooting up everywhere: around the greenhouse, under the apple trees, and in the verge of the ditch, next to the rhubarb which is sending up exciting red knobs.
Surrounded as I am by the 'We're Strictly Veg' allotmenteers, it's touching to see those cheerful flowers waving in the wind.
Last night's frost worried me (slightly), as I took a risk in planting up in my pond edge already, but everything looked fine this morning. And to be fair, I did pick flowers which look delicate but are quite robust, really, like campanula, violets and digitalis. I'll complement them with creeping geraniums as soon as they can be planted. Which in my country means after May 15th, otherwise you are asking for garden disaster. Or for Murphy to pay you another visit. I broke in to my own shed, by the way (SYM!), by means of industrial steel cutters.
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| Narcisii a plenty |
More about my gardens on Instagram @songsmith2962
