End of Ben's Holiday

Garden Blitz Day 13, Thursday, although I dithered in the morning, I worked for five hours, the last two in the glaring sun, and made a compromised finish on the veg patch; at one point the gales started suddenly as if someone turned a switch on and I couldn't sift the soil so I picked out the biggest clover bulbs only, but a bag or three of local school's fund-raising compost hide a multitude of sins. The problem is, the way I covered everything, new clover babies will surface in a day or two and it will be a continuous battle.

GBD14 & 15, Friday & Saturday: Friday morning was alright, overcast and quiet, but I was totally exhausted and dithered. Then came the rain, wind, bluster, gust and gale, so I slept a lot. I was exhausted. GBD 16, today, started very early with strong wind again and freak rain.I did housework inside. And this is the end of Ben's Garden Blitz holiday; not so blitzy and nothing done inside the house, but still he probably did more garden work this week than in the last two or three years added. 

Not bad, though, for two bags of garlic I thought were compost; the top right quadrant where I put the least hopeful cloves is really thriving. In the gaps are also purple basil, rocket and three types of marigold seeds. I love rocket leaves but for a couple of years we didn't plant them because there were problems with large white butterflies and they love nasturtiums and rockets. I asked the Dept of Conservation staff who makes regular visits when I could plant rockets, and they said I could as long as I checked the leaves regularly.

In the foreground, we had our last harvest of winter broad beans this week and they came out and I put in purple dwarf beans. Beyond the veg patch is the small dianthus patch, and  beyond, in the left, are branches Ben pruned; we didn't used to be able to see the fence.

The ivy area needs at least another whole day, this veg side at least two, plus getting a garden skip and getting rid of the ivy and other weeds we can't compost. The pruned branches are already too dry to put through the mulcher, but if I were to put a positive spin on the wind, they are so dry we can walk over them to break them up soonish.

In an ideal world, I'd live an urban apartment with a roof terrace for pots of plants and floor sturdy and insulated for large looms. My second choice is a flat place with a woodland garden, without power lines and boundaries to worry us. I love trees, and trees left to grow in directions and styles they wish. But we live in the suburbs with power lines overhead, our house smack in the middle of the section, with a right-of-way, a driveway to the house next door, taking up a chunk and cutting off another chunk on the other side in a weird way, (though this is not atypical around here,) on a steep slope.

We have six small sub-areas and a patio as our garden, rather than a nice big chunk. So against my desire, although we don't do it nearly as often as a more conscientious resident might, we have to prune/shape our trees to keep them tidy and not encroach/violate/endanger. For tall trees and near power lines we need professionals, but I do like us doing as much as we can so the trees are shaped in ways we like.

To be continued. As long as we live here, I suppose.