Gardening

Feeling WAY better on Sunday, I elected to walk the dog.  I figured that if, once the dog walk was done, I was still feeling better (meaning: not coughing, headachy or feeling any other plague-related symptoms) I could stop at the garden centre on the way home and get some plants and “fencing” for the side garden bed.


The walk was good and although I was a LOT more tired when I finished my walk, the sun was shining brightly and I wasn’t coughing, headachy or feeling any other of the aforementioned plague-related ills.  I think Saturday’s nap and rest was exactly what I needed in order to kick the plague away before it was able to latch on to me and do any real harm.  


I took a new turn on the Pipeline walk and, at the end of the trail, found a gorgeous little clearing:

Headed back to the car, listening to the water roar past, I took these two pictures:

On the way home I did indeed stop at Art Knapp’s and pick up some more “fencing” as well as a small army of herbs (and some onions and sweet-pea vines) to plan in the side garden.  I then stopped at the pet store to get food for Miss Jasmine and then home to have some lunch.


My Mum is an amazing gardener. The gardens at their home are spectacular and something I hope, one day, to come close to… She has a really great eye for what plants should go in which places and she and my Dad have sculpted the yard into a real work of living art.  A couple of years ago Dad and my brother built Mum a potting shed.  To me it looks enchanted most of the time – the potting shed being where a lot of the magic starts.  They put in a pond with goldfish as well, and there’s a little space to sit & watch the fish if so inclined.  In fact, when I brought Jasmine up to meet them, the very first time, Mum met us out near the garden for the introduction.


My Grannie also had amazing gardens for years – well, up until the last few, that is… Out in Yellow Point, their property had a huge garden – I don’t remember a lot about their property any more (they moved a number of years ago) but I can remember that when you walked out one of the doors at what I always thought of as the front of their house, there was a huge garden off to the left. 


The last three summers or so, though, my Grannie despaired of her garden. It wasn’t doing well, and I can clearly hear her saying that this was it, the garden was on notice – that if it didn’t smarten up, she wasn’t going to do it again.  The following early spring, Grannie would tell me that her “sap was rising” and into the garden she would go.


I can understand the feelings that Mum has about gardening and that Grannie had – the sap rising - the desire to be out in the dirt, planting stuff and nurturing it into something amazing and glorious.  Sunday was most definitely a day of rising sap for me.  The sun was shining brightly and although it was a little on the cool side, out of the wind it’s pretty close to perfect for planting a garden.


First up on my list was to plant three of the sweet-peas at the trellis in front of the compost bin.  Once they take and really shoot out, it will be a nice little mask to the bin.  Those in, the next step was to dig up the soil in the “flower bed” and loosen it up in order to get it ready for the herbs.  I moved one of the paving stones (that were, I think, initially used to hold planter pots) into the centre of the little garden patch. I needed something on which to stand, not only while I was working on Sunday’s project, but also to stand on when I am weeding and then when I start to harvest.


This is more of an herb garden than anything else. Along the wall I planted the other three sweet-pea plants, and yes, I planted four little Spanish onion plants in there, but the rest of what was planted was herbs: parsley, sage, rosemary, oregano, and thyme.   I had planter pots when I was living on Jersey & I was able to grow all of these with great success – having them in a garden bed will just give them better ability to root out and grow.  At harvest, I have a food drier that will be put to good use.  Fresh, home-grown herbs, carefully grown, picked and used as needed through the summer and autumn, and then picked and dried for winter use – I can’t think of too many more satisfying things!


After all was said and done, I turned on the hose-pipe and watered the beds.  The Peonies and Hostas are coming along well and now that the fencing is all up and tied in place (hopefully that will hold it – otherwise I’m likely to be making another trip back out to the garden place to get some stakes…) it’s actually looking like a habitable and useable space!


I'll get out tomorrow afternoon and take some sunshine pictures of the changes...


With love across the waters,