Thursday 1 May 2008

Exterminate! Exterminate!


More planting and garden shenanigans on this, the first day of May, a mixture of sunshine and rain, with a chill still hanging in the air. More signs of the swallows too. It is lovely being outside and hearing the sound of busy birds all around. In the old days this would have been Ascension Thursday and it's also St Joseph's feast day.

Wee was in the garden with me, getting happily dirty with his bucket and spade, while I continued filling a big pot with a mixture of clay, sandy soil (courtesy of our landlord) and multi-purpose compost. It’s for some carrot seeds, so the soil needs to be very light so the roots don’t split.

All the activity resulted in Wee falling asleep over his snack, so once he was napping in his cot I went out again for more planting. This time sunflower seeds in individual pots and more of those Baby Blue Eyes next to the exiled Contorted Willow in its big pot.

Now that I am expecting (little baby plants, that is), it’s time to get tough on slugs again. I went a bit crazed a couple of years ago after a lovely blue delphinium was devoured by the feckers and I wreaked revenge by collecting hundreds of them in the evening and early morning to stop them destroying other plants. This time round I am less squeamish and am slicing them with the spade rather than drowning them in beer.
On a more positive note, it was great to see so many earthworms in the pots. I showed some to Wee who was eager to pick them up and try to squeeze them.
The horses have come into the field behind us again and the foal is looking grand and strong.