After the wettest June since records began, the first full weekend in July has been pleasant enough. Warm and sunny in between showers. So pleasant, in fact, that I took it into my head to do some gardening. Now I may have mentioned before that I am to plants what Jack the Ripper was to prostitutes, but never fear, I did the sort of gardening that i am good at: the destructive kind.
Give me a patch of overgrown ground and I am in my element. I clear the way; Husband plants and nurtures. We make a good team. So, inspired by the cottage garden we saw in Stratford, I set to with my three-pronged fork (Husband has had it since before we were married, so it's probably over 30 years old) and my rubber gloves. I am ruthless; I show no mercy.
The first photo shows the patch of garden as it was, overgrown with buttercups, which were very pretty when in flower but the very devil to dig up. Photo two shows the clean soil complete with the first of the plants we've bought in order to try to create the cottage garden look.I would be slightly more hopeful about the result if it hadn't been for the raspberries.
Last year I cleared what had been the raspberry patch and we planted eight new sticks. No, that's not it. Canes! Three survived until last week when one got broken. Today I've planted six more canes: three of them look as though they might survive...
Harvey made his way out to join me during the afternoon. It was quite a challenge for him, so I promised him that we'd have a drink soon, and then I carried on gardening. After a bit Harvey wanted to know when we were getting this drink.
'Now, in a minute.'
'Do you mean now or in a minute?' he asked pedantically.
I looked at him. 'You're a Welsh dog; you know what I mean.'
He shrugged. 'Well, I assume you mean in a minute - or ten - as you're showing no sign of stopping gardening.'
I went and got him a drink.
He was born on a farm in Wales so he has no excuse. From the pedigree papers it looks as though someone else had him first and then changed their minds and returned him. We think it was because - hang on, I'll just make sure he can't hear what I'm typing - that's all right, he's in the other room, sleeping - he has a pink nose. Black-nosed Golden Retrievers look down their black noses on their pink-nosed cousins. There is snobbery in every walk of life.
5 comments:
Love that - a pedantic Welsh dog. What fools those people were to have returned Harvey - but your gain, and his.
Wow! I would love to have your talent... but said to say any plant i buy and bring home with me... never seems to make it... nothing zip nada! It's just sad and pathetic!
Raspberries.. yummmm,
M
We have been doing some gardening this weekend as well. Planted a few more plants and did some weeding. Our raspberries do quite well - got the canes from a work friend who was digging his up. We planted them and they've thrived ever since, despite being in a relatively shady spot. We'd get more raspberries off them if we ever remembered to pick them before the birds get them!
Looks like some hard work has really paid off there Liz.
You really must do something with that suspect fence post though as the next good Welsh Wind is going to bring it down on whatever you plant there and ruin it.
It must be a good year for raspberries (all that rain!) as we have been having a bumper crop on ours. Well I should say on one of the three! The gooseberries are looking good also.
I miss having a garden until I think about the work. We had a lovely chat to the apartment gardener on Saturday afternoon as he trimmed the bushes near our place. Being the only ground floor apartment, we felt it right to be friendly and he is a nice man. Offered him a drink, but he said he'd then need the loo so we offered that too. He still refused the drink. We went in and felt we'd done enough gardening for one year.
Post a Comment