Looking Good

There is nothing like having a garden group come to visit the garden to ensure it is in tip top condition for their arrival.  So I have been working ever so hard to make the garden lovely.  The grass was mowed, I tidied the greenhouse and the shed and I even tidied behind it, not that anyone looked, but they might have!  I even incurred a few blisters on my calloused gardener hands.  The crops were looking sharp – except the peas.

Looking fabulous… for a real garden

The peas need to come out, but I didn’t have the time and it added a degree of interest.  A talking point.  “These are the most amazing peas and now they are finished and need to come out.”  I think I made it sound much more glamorous than that.  Much better than: “this is where the peas were” while staring at a empty patch of soil.

These peas have seen better days, but their removal will leave a considerable gap in the landscape

Having said that, the garden wasn’t magazine perfect.  There were weeds and plants going to seed, and I’m ok with that, because it is a real garden.  A working garden.  While perfection can be captured in a moment for a glossy picture, it isn’t sustainable.  A proper garden, one feeding a family has gaps, and weeds, and things that were missed and are bolting for the sky.  I think it is important to be a bit relaxed about all that, otherwise it would drive you crazy and steal the joy from the garden.  I am over the moon when the garden’s peak condition is just tidy.

Weeds among the pumpkins

And just to confirm its status as a real garden, while proudly showing off my cucumber patch, it responding by showing off small white spots – the start of powdery mildew!  I did toy with the idea of letting it go for a bit until treating it, just to slow down the crop.  Note to self for next season:  One telegraph cucumber plant at a time!    The space I so proudly left for succession planting has been completely swallowed up by everything that is already there.

I sprayed the powdery mildew with ½ teaspoon of baking soda in a litre of water so hopefully this will hold it at bay.  I could have used the milk version, but we were running low and I must have milk in my cuppa tea!

But I reckon, had I not made a stupid mistake in the spring, then the cucumbers would still be free of powdery mildew at this point and there would be a little bit of room for a late season sowing.  I was lulled into a false sense of possibilities due to the completely unfavourable conditions for pumpkin growing last year.  Which resulted in stunted plants and half a dozen pumpkin that could be held easily in one hand, I decided popping a dwarf pumpkin in with my cucumbers would be a good idea.  It may have been a good idea had I not mixed up the labels.  How do I keep doing that?!  Even so, the compact dwarf variety is thriving in the open garden where the Baby Bear pumpkin should have been.   So maybe it wasn’t such a good idea, even if I put the right plant in the right place.  Meanwhile the vigorous Baby Bear pumpkin has run rampant through my cucumbers!

Pumpkins among the cucumbers

Busy has been the state of the year so far.  I am committed to making this year all about sustainability and by now I have normally forgotten my New Year Resolutions and have slipped comfortably back into doing what I’ve always done.   Not this time.  The first stage of this process has been a bit of a purge and doing some serious de-cluttering.  It has not been easy.  But we need to reduce what we have so we can go forward in a degree of control.  It is my aim to have completely taken care of the clutter by the end of the month. Stay tuned for an end of month update into The Sustainability Project.  So I am beginning to see a new way of life emerging from chaotic lifestyle we are more used to.  Exciting times.

Come again soon, I am still working on my water distribution trolley and with my ‘give it a whirl” construction style it should be interesting!

Sarah the Gardener  : o )

For a bit of housekeeping, I am claiming my blog on Bloglovin’ so you can follow me there if you want to.  So I have to put this here. <a href=”http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/6936355/?claim=zzwdzjh8wyf”>Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>       I’m not very tech savvy – I’m a gardener, so I hope I’ve done it right!