What’s this to do with gardening I hear you ask?
Well…we’ve finally got around to digging out the old raised bed and in the process of making a new one.
I’ve wanted this done for a long time, in fact it could even be said that I’ve been more than a tad impatient for it to happen, but…it’s stepping off that ledge and taking those first steps on such a chunky project.
It’s actually me that’s been making all the the excuses under the sun, him indoors just LOVES these ‘get your hands dirty’ type of chores..
‘Wrong time,’ I mutter, when in fact it’s exactly the opposite. If you’re going to move plants, now’s the time to do it, that way the soil’s still warm enough to replant them and for them to get a foothold before the cold season digs its heels in. ( Point to point out…raised bed…drains well, so well in fact that the dug out soil from raised bed was dry right down a good 3 foot, how on earth those plants hung on I’ll never know, their fine roots must have travelled some distance.)
‘But they’re still flowering,’well, yes, but they will keep flowering until the first frosts, then it’s too late to move them!
‘It’ll disturb all the wildlife hidden in amongst the dry stone walling,’ guess they’ll get disturbed whenever it’s moved…
Having exhausted all the reasons why we shouldn’t start, him indoors got a tad frustrated and threatened to call off doing it at any stage, so, pots in hand, we moved in for the kill.
Me sat poised on my trusty garden stool, him indoors and his shiny new shovel started removing my precious plants.
Pot after pot after pot was filled with up-rooted plants and soil…how on earth did I have that many packed into such a small space?
Never mind the hundreds of bulbs that I made him sift through the dug out soil for as he shovelled it into bags…ten bags, twenty bags, thirty bags..was there no end in sight?
Poor bloke, to say the sweat was breaking out on his brow was no exaggeration!
One layer of clothing after another was being removed…I thought he was going to end up gardening in his socks and pants. (you may think I’m exaggerating, but after witnessing him clearing out pond, he was down to pants and wellies that time…mind you, the water had well and truly come over the top of said wellies and saturated his socks and trousers.)
Consequently we are now officially at the stage of complete and utter chaos, something that I struggle to cope with.
But I know only too well that you have to crack a few eggs to make an omelette, (see…snappy title)
Big hole in wooden deck where raised bed once stood, bags galore of extracted soil lollop in all four corners of said plot, they cover the decked patio, clutter up the gravel patio, tucked away not quite so discretely down the side corridor..are they all really going to fit back into the new bed?
Not unless it’s about 10 foot tall!
It’s reconstruction has tentatively begun…but him indoors now informs me that he ‘has a very busy week ahead!’
This is one of the few time when I really feel the frustrations of my limited energy due to health problems.
I keep staring wistfully out of the patio doors at the mess, I’m itching to get out there and sort it.
But if nothing else, us gardeners know the true meaning of patience…after all I have a huge Salvia with a single bud finally coming into flower.
I have waited 2 years for this…
I don’t even know what species it is…label lost in transit.
For now though I’m going to focus on this, it’ll be the topping on my omelette.
the part-time passionate gardener 