Bees, weeds and helpful children
Hello friends!
It's been a crazy week (featuring head-lice removal, impetigo, sleeplessness, chest infections and other revolting motherhood stuff - sorry if that's oversharing but it explains the reason why this newsletter is devoid of special projects - just five minutes, snatched when I could, or #reallife in other words...
Monday: I spend the morning recording the next podcast - a fun conversation with community gardener Sara Venn - you can listen to it here or on iTunes - lots about tea and cake and about not getting over-excited and sowing more than you can cope with! Anyway, the day gets away from me. No gardening.
Tuesday: I spend an infuriating five minutes trying to drive a screw into my wooden trellis so that I can put up my bee hotel up. I've been reading a proof copy of Kate Bradbury's new book 'And the bumblebee flies anyway' (I will let you know when it's out), and it has spurred me on to think, and act with more purpose to make my garden a viable habitat for wildlife. This bee hotel is part of that. I don't have a screwdriver bit that I can put in my drill. It's enraging. Eventually I manage to drill hole in the thing and use a rawl plug. The thing is up. Success. Now I just need for the solitary bees to find it.
Wednesday: The sun comes out. The bliss of that warmth on ones skin - this winter has been utterly monumental. I fetch the small person from nursery, take her out into the garden and start pulling little sycamore seedlings from the flowerbeds. My knees hurt, so I go inside a fetch my kneeler - a pink floral thing given to me years ago. Small person announces that she wants the kneeler. We kneel together, and I teach her how to pull the seedlings, slowly, so the whole root comes out. She takes my basket and pulls and pulls and pulls. This is the first time I have ever gardened with a child and not wanted them to go away. Triumph.
Thursday: I spend the day writing about lawns. Ironically this means I have no time to get outside. No gardening.
Friday: I get myself a rosemary plant. I have NO idea why I don't have one in the garden. I also buy some parsley and sage to put in my herb pot, which I generally replenish every year. I re-up on multi-purpose compost, because I have lily bulbs arriving, and a few seeds to sow, and I spend a delicious five minutes sieving some of it for seed sowing. The tiny roots of seedlings need a fine compost that they can easily penetrate, so those larger 'bits' will hinder both germination and growth. It pays to sieve. I do a similar thing with tomato sauce or bolognese; I put it in the magimix for a few seconds so that my kids won't be able to pick out the carrots.
All the good things, always
xx Laetitia
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