Well! Let me tell you, this past month has been a month of unkind humour from the weather imps. But I suppose that’s all that can be expected from imps eh! They’re a mischievous sort you know, with a sarcastic sense of humour – and that’s exactly what they brought to the weather last month. It’s almost like they thought the weather was too lovely and sunny, and so decided to beckon the rain. Sigh!
I last recall a totally nice day being a Saturday around the third week of September. I remember it because I decided to indulge in the sunny 20 degree weather and lounged on the patio in a tee shirt and jeans in the early afternoon. I then drove around exploring later on that day determined not to let the fabulous weather pass me by. After that, it’s been rain and gales with some hail. There have been spells of good weather, but they have been short spells – very early in the morning as the sun is just rising, or later in the evening when the sun has gone. That is just unforgiveable humour from those Weather Imps.
Needless to say the weather limited my exploits in the garden during that very end of summer phase. I did get some work done, but it’s not very interesting taking pictures of barrow-loads of mud being moved from place to place.
During this very rainy stretch I did manage to grab about 3 hours of sun, which I put to use starting the annual chore of cleaning all the plant pots that I used this year. I only did a small portion of the pots, given that I must have over a thousand (probably closer to two) in the garden shed that I’ve used.
You’re probably wondering if I’m off my rocker, right? Eh, well it’s most certainly not a fun task but it is necessary. Between now and spring, old compost in these pots can encourage the growth of fungus or mould and those are two things that we most certainly don’t want to pass on to seedlings next year. In my little garden shed, a bird always seems to find its way in over the winter for a couple of days (this past winter it was a robin) and this means bird poop! So, I make it a habit to clean my pots and then store them in big plastic tubs with covers so that they’re all fresh for me to use when I’m frantically looking for them at the end of winter in order to pot on my seedlings. Honestly, there’s no way I’ll be willingly cleaning these pots in the dead of winter, and freezing everything off in the process!
Something else that I managed to get done in my garden shed while the weather was being absolutely dismal was divide my ever faithful amaryllis. You do remember my ongoing commentary about this absolute stalwart of a plant, don’t you? It was my supermarket purchase one Christmas, forced to flower in December for marketing needs, that I refused to throw away (even when everyone told me that it would be no good after it finished blooming due to the way it had been grown). Well that was 4 Christmases ago and not only has it been a force of flower power, blooming 2 and sometimes 3 times a year, but I’ve given some of its baby plants away to friends in various villages here. This beautiful plant that I was told wasn’t worth keeping, has brought so much joy to me and to other households – it makes my heart very happy. Don’t give up on your plants folks (unless they’re absolutely dead, duh!).
