It certainly feels like it. Spring is four days old and I’ve done nothing about it. I just want to shake myself – ‘do you not realise it is spring – the season of seasons, the one you long for all year, the chance to sow all the seeds with wild abandon, with no guilt of going too early?’ Seriously – I need to give myself a stern talking to.
I have not embraced the start of this glorious season with the same over enthusiasm I have in previous years. Even though the weather was so wonderfully spring like with cloudless blue-sky days with a hint of the possibility of summer for the first couple of days. Since then it has turned to pot and delivered winter-esk wind and rain and so that hope for the new season feeling has withered up like a new bud on a tree that peaked too early and got hit by a frost. (Not that we have had a frost – just to be clear – things aren’t quite that bad.)
I do have good reasons for the delay to the start of spring. Firstly, I think with the first day of the new season being on a Sunday created a few issues. I try not to garden on weekends – unless there are exceptional circumstances. My kids are growing up so fast and if I blink, I will miss what is left of their time at home and they would have left and become adults without me even looking up from my weeding. So, weekends are for them. Having said that – ordinarily sowing seeds on the first day of spring would be considered exceptional circumstances – laced with a heavy dose of tradition. And I could have gotten away with it, if it wasn’t for Father’s Day.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the value of honouring dad’s and so we whisked ourselves halfway down the country to see my Dad while making sure Hubby the Un-Gardener also felt special. It was a lovely time with family.
But my seed sowing was thwarted once again on our arrival home. The weather was perfect, it was a Monday – the fresh start to a new week in a new season, but alas no. I was doing a spot of frenzied panic weeding and tidying for a bus load of lovely gardeners from a local garden club who visited that afternoon. It was a great time and they all seemed to enjoy my garden. Sometimes it is hard for me to see what they see as I can only see what needs to be done. I need to sit down more – possibly on my swing seat and just admire my handiwork. But as my Nana used to say, ‘that won’t get the cows milked.’ Or in more suitable for me way ‘that won’t get the seeds sown’.
Tuesday was my second chance at getting the seeds sown, but after four weeks of not feeling that great I decided to go to the Dr, just to check things out, only to find out it was ‘viral’, and I’d recover – eventually. So, I shall just push on and try and get things done. Things like sowing seeds. But the trip into town took a huge chunk of time out of my day and so the most I had time for was to gather the seeds together and write out all the labels. And before I knew it the day was at an end.
As much as I feel a little panicked that I’m now four days behind in my seed sowing, I need to stop beating myself up about it and remind myself that the seed sowing window for the new season is not just the first day or the first week – but that window is open for a couple of months. And to be honest the delay may even result in healthier plants because, like I always say ‘plants sown too early can struggle to thrive and plants sown at the right time soon overtake them and go on to be more productive’ or words to that effect.
At the end of the day it will be fine (although at the end of which day at this point is anyone’s guess) and standing in the middle of the garden in the middle of summer you wouldn’t even be able to tell this was a thing that caused me so much consternation.
Come again soon – seeds will be planted.
Sarah the Gardener : o)
Isn’t it amazing that this is the way things sometimes go in life, and I am sure all will be well. I hope you are feeling better soon too and have more energy. It looks like you did a good deal already Sarah! It never fails to amaze me the way the seasons vary in different parts of the earth, We are on the beginning of autumn now. And as well as that, my fiancé and I have got ourselves married last Saturday in a beautiful ceremony. Kind regards from Agnes
Congratulations Agnes. That is lovely news.
The seasons are a wonder really, and perfectly timed as they tend to change when you start to get over the weather it brings. I hope you have a lovely autumn. Cheers Sarah : o)
Thank you Sarah, wishing you a great and interesting season too x
Sarah – It’s lovely to see spring in your garden – when it’s almost fall in my garden here! Enjoy!
Thank you so much. I am so pleased it is spring, it was a long winter. : o)
This year I’m hoping to plant parsnips and coriander (and carrots and tomatoes and peas and beans and dill and….) But first I need to clear some more land in the long-neglected garden. Oh, and acquire some actual seeds.
But I think the most urgent task is preparing some codling-moth traps before the Bramley bursts into bloom.
There is so much to do at this time of year. I forgot about the codling moth traps – I put my apple trees in my chicken coop so hopefully the chickens will help take care of things. : o)
I hear they’re great at eating the codling moths in their grub-in-the-ground stage. Perhaps I can borrow someone’s chooks next winter – rent-a-rooster?
That was the plan – although I need to make sure they don’t scratch up the actual tree! : o)
Thanks for the tip using labels cut from milk bottles. I used wooden markers for my seedlings and the dye on the labels has run. Should have used an indelible pen!!!
Brain fog.
It feels good to be upcycling a milk bottle or two. I hope you can fix your labels so you know what you are growing. : o)
I know how you feel! I’m off to Europe for 3 weeks knowing that if I planted seeds before there is no way they would be looked after and survive. It will have to be October 2nd 😬
Gosh I know how that feels to be going away in at the start of the growing season – it is hard not to let the clash to two fabulous things take a tiny bit of shine off each other. Have fun in Europe, I hope you’ll be visiting loads of cool gardens. Cheers Sarah : o)
Gardening is wonderful and I didn’t get to work my pea patch this year due to a variety of reasons. Still, it always brings peace to see others doing it and doing it well. Thank you for posting 🙂
Isn’t gardening the best occupation! I’m sorry you missed out on your peas. There is nothing like eating sweet tender peas straight from the garden. Having said that – if I don’t get on to mine soon I’m going to miss out too! : o)
That first picture looks like a quince blossom! I now it is too early for them there, but that is what it looks like.
Why is corn not sown directly? (Maybe I asked that before.) Is it just to give it an early start? One six pack won’t go far.
You are right – it is a quince. The blossoms are popping out all over the place now. I’ve sown just a few popcorn seeds early as part of my master plan to have 4 different kinds of corn this season with enough of a time gap between them all so they don’t cross pollinate! I normally put in about 60 sweetcorn with direct sowing in late October when the soil is warm enough. : o)
That is rad that you have a quince. Mine blooms along with the foliage, and after the apples and pears. It is not as pretty, but it is one of my favorite fruit trees. I grew up with its parent.
I did not think of keeping corn separated. I grow only two varieties annually, if I grow it at all. I almost never do, just because it wants so much water and space.
I had one in the old garden and it was my most reliable tree. So of course I had to try and grow one here!
If you can’t separate corn by distance then the next best way is by time. Two weeks is the very least I’d put between them. : o)
We were supposed to keep winter squash separated. Because they grow all through summer, the only way to do so was to grow only one type. What we did instead (inadvertently) was to grow two different species that do not hybridize. I grow no more than two at a time anyway. The acorn squash was not planned. Someone left the seed here. If I wanted to grow other types (which I don’t), I would probably just purchase new seed annually. I know acorn squash is sort of boring, but I happen to like it, and it is so reliable.
I don’t save squash or pumpkin seeds – I grow too many varieties to make it worth going through the hassle of making sure they stay true. : o)
Yes, I remember that. Sometimes, I sort of wonder what we would get if we mixed something, but it never happened. There might have been times when we grew two different varieties of the same species, but they either did not hybridize, or I did not save seed. A long time ago, I did not care what species they were.