After a grumpy day yesterday (I think top of the list of ‘how to help your friend if she loses a child’ should be ‘if she says the day is starting happy, she’ll crash within an hour and needs hourly moral boosts and love all day’) I wanted to do better today. The sun was shining and the garden looked… well, scraggy, to be honest. I thought it was time to get out there and get my hands dirty.
I got one hand dirty, as it happened, because I could only find one gardening glove, but I did good stuff too and finished the day with a feel good feeling in my soul.
Although we did try to do some garden stuff last year, we ran out of steam and heart for it in the Autumn and the veg pots never got cleared and the beds never got tidied. Today I mostly pruned and pulled and weeded and cleared up, ably assisted by Josie, who was keen to help. She’s a very Montessori child that one, I ought to make more of an effort to do special things with her.
It all looks a bit bare just now, but in a few weeks, I’m hoping it will be coming to life. I think I’m going to be like Mary in The Secret Garden this year, tending flowers to stop my soul from breaking. But I don’t mind that. I haven’t resorted to cat ownership yet, so there is still hope.
(I’m looking forward to this corner looking like this again soon).
Imagine our surprise to uncover perhaps 2lbs of carrots in a forgotten pot!
I don’t think they’ll be sweet enough for roasting, but they’ll go in the stew this week.
There was some rabbit capering
This is Button and Biscuit who we are hoping will live together eventually. They are not entirely sure about it.
And Clover. Fiver was busy frisking about the garden but his mum didn’t give permission for his photo to be used.
Josie did lots of sweeping….
and carrot cleaning.
And by the end of the day my scruffy patio looked like this…
…with the veg pots all ready for growing and the bed were weeded and Max and I had talked ‘raised beds’ with a view to doing a bit more about our living a little less on the grid plan.
A few weeks ago I left a comment over at Tales From the Village and last week I got an email from the lovely chaps at Appliances Online, offering me a Fairy Blog Brother parcel of delights. On Saturday I got two parcels full of seeds – flowers and vegetables to grow in our garden this year! It put a huge grin on my face (and the faces of the girls!) to get a present and I know they will not only make our garden look great this year but inspire us to get out there and grow food and work on it together. So thank you to them for such a thoughtful gift.
And here’s the great bit – if you leave a comment and a link to your blog below, you might just find yourself getting a little present too! (And please don’t be shy, they seem to really like giving presents and don’t seem to mind you dropping hints either 😆 )
Great work – good to hear you had a productive day! I love gardening at this time of year – it’s so pleasing to see the garden looking neat and tidy and ready to start sowing and growing. I wish I’d had chance to garden this weekend – instead I was locked inside with a computer, or otherwise engaged occupying two small people while DH was locked inside with a computer. But, anyway – I’m plotting (pun intended) a couple of hours with a seed catalogue/website very soon..
glad to see my comment about university eventually showed up – I thought it had been eaten by the tinterspiders (that live on the tinterwebs). I had meant to say – but somehow forgot – that you shouldnt say ‘you didnt go to university’ just that you havent got a degree yet! But you did that for me in your reply…. I realised the other day, that despite having children several times older than my two – you must be younger than me by dint of the fact that you did GCSE’s rather than O’levels!
http://www.knittinglessen.blogspot.com
Was having a major attack of the over effusive spam filter- it seems to have sorted itself out now 😀
Oh, I am so glad. What a lovely present. xxx
I know – just blogged a pic of my haul too 🙂
I really should be tidying my garden too. The sun was shining for us here but well there was a bit of a wind and… well it’s pretty difficult to get the conditions just right for me to get my hands grubby. Shame on me! And the kids are so keen to grow stuff too. Must do better this year. x
I think gardening is very good for stopping your soul from breaking. And so impressed with your carrot haul!! I’ve just got some little seeds coming up (lettuce, radishes, rocket, beets) and it is so amazing to see those little leaves pushing up through the surface. So glad to hear you had a good day.
ps I always end up with dirty hands even with gloves on because the rubber has come off the fingers of my very well-loved gardening gloves!
I never manage to get favourite gloves and someone ALWAYS nicks them :/
Well done for getting out there and making the most of the sun. I’m sure once life blooms out there, it will help with healing.
I wish I had done the same this weekend but just couldn’t find the oompf to do so instead choosing to gaze out the window at our chooks and ducks and their lack of not-so-long-ago-laid lawn and a mountain of empty-wannabee-filled plant pots…. I’m sure the rabbits would love the carrots 🙂
No, they CAN’T have my carrots! We WILL eat them, even if they are made of wood!
You’ve inspired me! our garden is in dire need of a tidy up, we hope to get chickens this year too, so an overhaul of the veg garden to make space for a hen house is top of our list, just need some time.
You have your lovely Florence bit; I want to make something like that.
Time to get back into the garden/allotment. Dont spoze you fancy digging five two foot bore holes for fruit fences for me? YOu could call it your Off Grid apprenticeship if you like?? No? mmmm
Hm… no. I quite fancy and allotment though 😀
that would be two foot DEEP
lovely to see your garden coming back to life! I must try carrots again this year, forgot to get them going last yaer but the year before we had loads of them – I did the little globe type ones that we just needed to wash and throw in the pot 🙂
http://tbirdanni.blogsome.com/
This is the only year they have worked – forgetting about them was apparently the answer.
We were out in the garden this weekend, too, tending to the butterfly plants and flowers in our memorial garden. Yes, tending flowers to keep my soul from breaking. It’s all worth it when those sweet little butterflies come to visit. Thinking of you. xx
I think it will be worth it this year – it was not bad last year but this year I’d like to make it really count. Haven’t done good gardening with Josie yet and she ought to get that.
I’ve just found you through Notes From Home and I’ve read a fair bit of your blog. You write beautifully, i hope it helps in some small way.
Gardening is something I keep meaning to get into with my girls… never much been a fan of getting my hands dirty but about time I tried I reckon! Am a bit confused though… what do appliances online have to do with seeds??!!
http://www.stephstwogirls.blogspot.com
Steph, they just gift you with something you would like – you are allowed to give them hints 🙂 Thank you for popping by and the compliments – am popping back to see you now!