I should really remember it every year as a hard month, but my enthusiasm and sheer determination tends to make me forget that I have the same struggle every year. September – the middle spring month is just yucky. It is always stormy and windy and rainy and soggy and boggy and really hard work. But the thing is – it is an uphill battle to get the garden ready for the plants, so they have a nice home to grow in.
So you find yourself – well if the truth be known Hubby the Un-Gardener finds himself out there dodging rain showers and howling gales turning over sodden earth so it can dry out and then I can take over and lightly fluff it up and remove all trace of weeds and do all the good enriching. But if I had my wits about me I should have done all of this in August when the weather seems more settled and tricks the unwary gardener in to planting things into the garden way too early and then the plants are left to the mercy of the September elements.
October is much better – it is more settled – from what I can remember and is what I am hoping for – it warms up and rains less and gardening is a whole lot more pleasant an experience. But time is not on my side. I still have a load of digging and clearing to do, and the weeds have crept in to places that were once clear. I have my work cut out for me.
The greenhouse is loaded with most of the season’s seedlings that will give us a bounty for an entire year. At the moment it is difficult to see that the small amount of greenery in there will be able to do this and will indeed fill my garden, but in the next week or so it will all need moving up another pot size and I will find myself in my new enlarged greenhouse looking about for more space to put things.
But I wouldn’t have it any other way, gardening is a wonderful healing and restoring process – provided you don’t overdo it. And I have to admit I think single-handedly building a new greenhouse may have pushed myself just that bit too far and I have had to realise I’m not superwoman. My fragile health has taken a bit of a hit and so now I am reduced to a slow and steady pace, as I recover, and what better way to do it but in my garden – at a gentle plod with my wonderfully Hubby the Un-Gardener doing all the hard work.
Come again soon – I’ll give you that greenhouse tour I promised.
Sarah the Gardener : o )
The lambs look so cute. Sorry to hear you haven’t been in the best of health – a few warm, spring days, gently pottering in the garden will hopefully give you a boost 🙂
Hi Elaine, The kids have to teach the lambs how to walk around an obstacle course and come when they are called and we have three weeks to master this. It is not looking good – these lambs have been taught scatter-brained habits from the ‘other’ lambs so we have separated them – wish us luck!
It is good it is school holidays – we are just going to mooch about at home for the next couple of weeks and rest and take it easy – it will be good for all of us.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Great post! It’s so interesting to read about other places… We’re just heading into fall… The beginning is nice with all the colorful leaves, but then the yucky white stuff comes… 😛
Hi There, sometimes it is nice to have clearly defined seasons, so you can really appreciate the differences. We don’t get snow here because we are too far north and quite coastal, which can make winter quite dreary with all the grey and soggy rain. It makes summer so worth the wait. Enjoy the beauty of your fall. Cheers Sarah : o )
I wish you could send some of that rain our way! We have exactly the opposite kind of yucky September month with everything looking parched and dry and the dust, don’t get me started on the dust! Holding thumbs for rain soon…
Hi Marisa. I would gladly send any rain your way – I could dehydrate some for you! It won’t be long before the tables are turned and we are the ones desperate for the rain. I hope it comes for you soon. Cheers Sarah : o )
When I got up at 3am today (bollocks to the rapidly approaching Daylight Savings debarcle that I have to prepare myself for 😉 ) there was an electrical storm strongarming our neck of the woods. September would apparently be both of our worst months. Not so much for the garden here as we need every drop of ground water that we can get, but more for the fact that we can’t get outside much and we can’t sink the last 4 poles (concrete them in) for our huge veggie garden. It has rained for weeks now and we have given up having anything but twin canyonds down our driveway. It makes for exciting “extreme sport driving” to go to the local shops and heading down to get the mail is certainly invigorating. Your garden looks “all systems GO!” and its great to see at least 1 person ready to jump into our coming season. I fear I will be late (as usual) 😉
Hi Fran, It even made it to our news feeds that weather in your neck of the woods hasn’t been nice. I hope that it will ease soon and you will get to share in the more mild stuff we have had – which is all the more appreciated after the nasty stuff.
Your garden will be fine – they tend to be quite forgiving when it comes to things like tardiness, as they aren’t quite as obsessed by calendars as we are and come late summer when you have more than your fair share of produce to process you will have all but forgotten about the white water mail collection – I do hope you have hard hats and life jackets! Have an awesome weekend. Cheers Sarah : o )
Cheers for the boost Sarah :). We had a MASSIVE big black wattle fall down over the fence between our place and Glad’s next door. It was on Glad’s side but Glad is 91 and even if she wanted to attempt the removal (wouldn’t put it past her) my long dead dad would haul me to wherever he is for a massive bullocking if I even thought of letting her or her daughter Wendy deal with it (not that I ever would…just reinforcing the dire straights that I would be in should my laziness take over from my civil common decency…). We just spent 3 hours chopping it up. Rather than see it as a pain in the bum, we saw it as free exercise (no gym memberships for us!), free firewood that we wouldn’t have otherwise had, free kindling and branches that are nitrogenous (the smaller twiggy bits and leaves) to be tossed into a massive pile to make nitrogen rich compost for Serendipity Farm. We WIN! :). That’s how to look at life, like a series of occurrence’s that you just have to find the good stuff in 🙂 Have an even more awesome weekend and tomorrow we hit the dreaded d.s. and I am completely ready for it! I have been getting up an hour earlier so “BRING IT ON D.S.!” 😉
If you don’t look for something good in everything, then you just end up grumpy and miserable! Free is a pretty “good” to find in stormy weather.
I am struggling to get in the garden too, as my health is sucky! but I am getting there day by day, and as fortune would have it – a garden is a place of healing so I really have no choice but to garden – just at a much slower pace!
Good luck with the transition to DS! Cheers S : o )
Sorry about your health being bad :(. I comiserate with you. My “dicky knee” is giving me jip at the moment and the dogs took Steve out when he was walking them the other day and his shoulder is now playing up…I think we all need a bit of good old fashioned southern sunshine to warm up our bones and get us jump started for the coming season :). Rest up over the weekend and hugs from Tassie 🙂
Wonderful blog and post. You made me smile! Enjoy your garden while remembering to pace yourself! 🙂
Hi Catherine. Thank you so much for your kind words. I am trying my best to look after myself and trying not to over do things each time I feel a little better! A garden is a great place to make you feel good.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Hi Sarah,
I couldn’t agree with you more. Love the garden too! 🙂