Summer Is Here And My To-Do List Is Running Away From Me!

An interesting thing happened as I made my last blog post.  I got a notification from my friend Anne, that she had published a new blog post herself, 10 mins after I had.  This meant that we had both been focusing on our bletherings to the world, at the same time!  Some of you may wonder what on earth would be so interesting about this.  To me, however, it is a wonderful discovery to know that two people, who have come to know and appreciate one another while living across the world in entirely different surroundings and cultures, were doing the same process at the same time on the same day.  [You can find Anne here.]

Maybe my thoughts are foolishly poetic, or at least fanciful, but I do feel lucky to know people around the world and count most of them as friends.  It does make me feel like I’m walking down a happy path through life, not at all alone, when I can see my friend – across time zones – sitting down, maybe with a cup of something, to recount her adventures; as I do for you.  It certainly made me feel happy, that I was here surrounded by fields, sheep and the errant cow or pony, and at the same time not at all in a solitary bubble, but accompanied.

Of course, I’m sure you’re all falling off your seats at the moment.  Yes, yes!  Two blog posts and only a week has gone by.  That can only mean a couple of things, right? Have you guessed them?

Yes, I have a break in my schedule and my brain feels rejuvenated enough to wander in happy directions.  And, yes the weather outside is prohibitive. It’s stormy and we have a gale. It’s a warm gale, true enough, but it’s still a gale.  There will be no potting, planting, weeding, sowing or even the placement of a wellie outside today. But, there’s always a bright side in the gloom, isn’t there? At least I don’t have to go running around with my hose and spot sprinkler today.  Yes, I’m still waiting on my soaker hose attachment to arrive!

It seems like a good time to tell you what I’ve managed to cross off the gardening to-do list so far!

I’ve tidied the front hedging area and installed the weed management solution, with mulch on top. The soaker hose system will run along this area as well, so really it should be low maintenance there from now on.

As for tidying the rockery at the driveway (either side of the drive), well this is partially complete.  I’ve taken up the old weed control membrane (not the heavy duty one that I have switched to these days) and gathered up the tiny stone chips on one side of the drive.  All that’s left to do now is to transplant some seedlings and divided plants to this area, apply the heavy duty membrane and wash and lay the stone chips. The other, meatier side of the drive has been 80% cleared of weeds and my dianthus seedlings, which have been oh-so-carefully nurtured since last year (they were plonked outdoors to endure the depraved depth of winter), have been transplanted and seem to be happy!  I still have about 20% of the area to clear of weeds – this is the hard 20%.  It involves climbing and contorting to be able to clear all the weeds – did I mention that the drive way is sunken? The rockery walls on either side are on inclines, to different gradients.  I couldn’t face this last 20% the day that I was on a weed rampage, so it’s biding its time – waiting for me.  I’m loathe to even mention it, but I have 3 boulders that I need to move into place to complete the look for this relatively small remaining area.  You see, I’ve decided that I need to make the rock planter at the corner of the driveway a little higher, so that more soil can be added and happier plants grown. 

I’ll be honest with you, I’m fully dreading this last 20% of that project – it’s very much ‘to-do’. So, let’s move on shall we?

I’ve completed the weed management and mulching under my tree hedge, which was planted 4 years ago.  I’m quite pleased with the progress of this area in the garden as the trees are almost 6ft high and, while they still need to bulk out a bit, they are providing a great windbreak and privacy barrier to the side of the front garden.

I also managed to plant up the potato patch, and consequently have about 60 happy Sharpes Express first-earlies sprouting. We’ll focus on that and not on the onions which I have yet to plant – although, I will remind you at this point that we had winter throughout most of April and May has only just finished! That’s my excuse for letting this item on the to-do list run away with me, and I’m sticking to it! Hrmpf.

The sunflower seeds were sown. The other stone wall planter that I created 4 years by the main rockery at the stone steps has been tidied, and is flowering nicely.  The rose hedge next to it has been weeded, fed and pruned.  The grass around it is currently not behaving, however. It’s with this area that I always end up thinking ‘oh to have the cash to hire a digger to scrape the wild grass away, level out the area and dig a proper drainage ditch’!  Really, that would make life so much easier.  I could sow my lawn seed (a proper grass mixture that behaves and looks superbly vibrant and lush, compared to the wild country grass, all year round), use the lawn mower in place of the zoggish strimmer, and not have to think about clearing field drains ever again.  Oh, what a beguiling thought.  There would be maintenance of course, but I would happily do it if a digger magically turned up and helped me out.  Do you think a wish-granting fairy is listening?

It seems I haven’t done as much as I’d thought on my original to-do list, and have created some more tasks for myself along the way!  Funny how that tends to happen. However, I can say with pride and pleasure that my goal of implementing solutions to help reduce the manual labour maintenance in the garden is slowly but surely coming to fruition. But, true to my innate priorities, I did read another book this weekend – I couldn’t help it!  Once Philip C. Quaintrell publishes something, I have to read it in quick fashion.  His writing is that good!

Now, if only I could get this Instagram palaver to become second nature – yes, I gave in. Go find me there (@ruraltransplant) and keep me company, it’s a bit lonely being the new kid on the block!  Oh, what to-do?! (Get it?!)