Gardening, or Lack Of

The garlic and onion sets growing in the garden

I hear of people, like me, all over the place.  They peek at their gardens, step into the garden and step inside again with the cold.  They can see the various shrubs that need pruning still, or removing.  They can see bulbs that have been displaced or have unopened packs still to plant.  Its getting light earlier so they pop round the garden but only for a look as it’s time for work.  It stays lighter later in the evening so they rush home and check the garden again only it just gets dark before they open their sheds. All in all it’s just not happening in the garden.

I have become cocooned in my ‘winter shell’ and I’m not seeing any light at the end of the winter tunnel. I can see 100 jobs to do in the garden but I just can’t get to it or if I can, not for very long. Weekends lately have been spent battling against sharp gusty cold winds and I’ve just had to turn around and come inside again. So I’m just going to have to be patient.  Spring is just peaking to me over the fence so I keep telling myself.

So far this year I’ve only manage to accomplish the following jobs:

1. Rescue sweet peas from the cold freezing temperatures after finding the grow-house door zip had broken.  Once the temperature increased and the snow melted I put them back into the grow-house.
2. Rescue the sweet peas again from the said wrecked grow house after the gusty winds blew the three trays of growing plants all over the floor
3. Bought chilli seeds and various other vegetable seeds ready for sowing later in March and April.
4. Bought three bags of compost and added them to one of the raised beds.
5. Bought first early tubers which I added to the shed for chitting only to find half of them become wet and start to break down.  So now I’m left with a mere four tubers.
6. Finish wire fencing off the lawn from a certain pooch who thought it was a great idea to break through the barriers already in place!
7. Attempt, in vain, to fix the walk in grow house – in the end have given up, knowing I forthought well when I bought a spare cover for the grow house.
8. Fed indoor orchid.
9. Keep checking my onion and garlic sets and poking them back into the soil where the constant snow, followed by frost, followed by rain keeps displacing them out of their little places.
10. Fed the birds (very important and constant over the past month or so).

Actually, looking at that list it’s not that bad is it?  I have done a few bits.  I won’t write my to-do list because that would just be defeatist.  It’s pretty big but one thing I have learnt to do is to break that major list down into months, and in some cases weeks.
Such as – I know I need to get the final trees into place before end of March but before I can do that I have to preapre the ground for them.  I also know I need to sow my chilli seeds and I can also start to sow other veggies like cabbages and Brussel Sprouts.

I’m just going to look forward to the three weeks left in February and will make the any time that becomes available to make the most of in the garden.

Sometimes we just have to accept that we can’t go in the garden, or indeed that there isn’t anything in the garden that won’t wait until the gales die down and the snow drifts away.

This time away from the garden allows us to reflect what we’ve done and what we intend to do.  It gives us the space to plan new and exciting ideas and projects for the summer and most importantly gives us that time to look through the colourful seed catalogues (yes, you know who you are).

Don’t forget if you’ve never grown anything before be it vegetables or fruit and would like to try it out then go for it.  Any help and advice I’ll gladly give.  I’m on a mission to get 25 people growing their own vegetables this year.  It’s called my ‘Carrot Challenge‘ and it doesn’t matter what size garden or balcony you have, growing something is all that matters.

So, if you want to help me on my mission and be one of those 25 people then please get in touch.  It’s not hard and it takes very little time. Do it as a family, do it at school, do it on your own.  I don’t care just get growing!