Mulching, picking, potting on, surprise deliveries and PANCAKE HELL 🤬
Hello friends!
It has rained pretty much all week long, with the odd intense burst of summer-like weather. My gardening endeavours have been truly tiny, 300 second things. Sweeping and pulling the odd weed haven't even figured this week...here's what I've been up to.
Monday
The duckling eggs are arriving at my daughter's nursery, and my pool is full to the brim with frogspawn. There has been a veritable orgy going on in that pool, and we've all been watching with much fascination. But when it gets dark, and all you can hear is their wonderful song...that's my favourite. As you may have guessed, I am, what people refer to as 'full of the joys of Spring' and mulching is on my mind. I had it in my head that today would be the day when did rather a lot of this in the garden, but as usual, life and its myriad small interlopers gets in the way, and I manage to cover the base of one bush...a sarcococca which I also clip loosely as it has finished flowering.
Tuesday
It is pancake day and the less said about that the better. The commonly held misconception is that people who loathe pancake day also hate pancakes. This could not be further than the truth; there is very little I love more than to be presented with a perfectly formed crepe, slightly curling at the edges, doused with lemon and lots of granulated sugar...who WOULDN'T want that? No, it's the cooking and tossing and battering and fat-spitting and wall-splattering chaos of it all that I could frankly do without. Things have been bearable up until now as I have been in charge of the cooking (which means I buy a packet of pancakes from the supermarket and serve them up). My now nine year old cooking-obsessed daughter however, has other ideas and I want to let her create and be joyful etc...so there we are. We are covered in pancake batter and I am taking refuge in my social media channels, finding fellow pancake day haters. I cut all my tiny little iris reticulata, which are being bashed about by all this rain, and put them in vases, where they will only last a day, but at least I will have the pleasure of seeing them close up.
Wednesday
I find eight small pots and fill them with new compost, and then I grab my tomatoes and chillies, which are growing beautifully in the warmth of my kitchen and remove them from their coir pellet nylons; I say nylons to describe the membrane in which the coir is housed, and I think that it's probably supposed to be permeable, so that the roots can eventually grow through it...not sure, but it doesn't look very permeable to me - in fact it's pretty difficult to tear, so I cut it with nail scissors and release the plants into their new homes, with some nutrients to get them growing apace. They get watered with warm water very carefully once they are back in the kitchen. I plant them very much deeper than they were originally growing, so that the plants can root themselves firmly in their pots. They are all lined up now, looking comfortable. The varieties I used are 'Cherry Falls' tomatoes and 'Pikito' peppers and you can find links to them in this earlier newsletter (it's absolutely not too late to sow now).
Thursday
My cobaea scandens have been a mixed bag on the germination front. One came up on Monday and another came up yesterday. The other four are nowhere to be seen (yet). That's okay. They are funny like that and I only really need two anyway. When they germinate they really really go for it though, so if you don't check on them you might find the poor seedlings pushing up the plastic lid of the propagating tray. As soon as I see action I've been removing them from their humid haven and putting them next to my other seedlings in the (relatively) fresh air of my kitchen. Houseplants get watered today and I've been feeding them for a couple of weeks now, because I have been seeing such a lot of new growth. I use baby bio because I happen to have a bottle, putting four squirts (approx ten drops per squirt) into a four pint water jug and filling it with luke warm water which I then douse them with. I have to refill the jug a three times for my small collection of houseplants. I'm thinking I might get an indoor watering can (although god knows where it will live).
The clematis has suddenly burst open - it belongs to my neighbour and has climbed all over my apple tree. It's probably not very good for the tree but I don't care - it makes me so happy, creating its very own arbour type experience which, if I were a better instagrammer, I would probably have utilised by now by placing a bench beneath putting on a floaty dress and posing beneath, freezing my bosoms off. Nah. Not gonna happen.
The doorbell rings and it's more plants (oops). I had completely forgotten about the salvia caradonna order I made, post wine, a few weeks ago. There are eighteen large plugs and they are in those damnable plastic things that don't even stand up on their own and you can't DO anything with after using them (although they are recyclable). That's my task for tomorrow then.
Friday
It's been quite a week. I just want to go back to bed but I remember the salvia and rush outside to find some pots for those plugs. The thing about gardening is that as SOON as you begin you wonder why you didn't start sooner. It's not like running or cycling, or any other type of exercise, where you have that awful first ten minutes to get through...the pay-off with gardening is immediate. As soon as I free the first little plug from its plastic prison and put it in its new pot with lovely compost it seems to expand before my eyes. I could probably plant these guys right now but I am wary of April snow or frost (yes, scarred for life by the Beast from the East). They are instead put into individual pots and into a cold frame until I can be sure they'll thrive. I can't wait to get them into the border though. I'm hoping they will provide a rather more permanent, low-maintenance alternative to the asters which so spectacularly failed for me. Wish me luck darlings!
All the good things, always
x Laetitia
ps you may have missed
Pea shoots for children (and adults too)
My garden wish-list 2019 (along with some rather personal musings about parenthood and priorities)