Still Green

So last Sunday I did not really get much done and the next week has not been much better.

But the sun has finally broken through.  I took my leggy tomatoes out to the greenhouse to man up and fend for themselves although I am not sure they are tough enough.  They seem to have survived a week in which there have been sunny days but chilly nights with hints of ground frost and a cold north wind.  It was the cold north wind which spooked our otherwise chilled Labrador when she saw a white plastic sack blown against the top gate.  She’s not the sharpest tool in the box – but a good blunderbus when it comes to rabbit catching.

We did get the mower going and Josh did a good job with that while I managed to sharpen up some of the edges of the beds, so it actually appeared as if the place was being looked after.  Large amounts of the walnut tree had to be cleared as much of it had been scattered across the grass after the winter storms.  And I’ve also cut the raspberry canes in the veg patch.

Cut grass and sharp edges

So everything is beginning to come under our control.  I feel like we are just preparing the canvas for the summer artwork which will be the garden in full flourish.  And as part of that we need the tools to create it so it was our good fortune to find ourselves in Lidl on the first day of “garden week”.  I always used to think that Lidl was a supermarket that operated life by dice theory:  if they roll a six they will stock gardening equipment this week.  If it is a four they will be selling women’s thermal underwear and disco balls.  But actually, over a period of years it is clear that there is method in their apparent random selling patterns and it was not a surprise to see so much good stuff there for the gardener at a time when gardeners are finally coming out of the shed, as it were.  I could not help myself and bought propagators, secateurs (which will probably end up on the compost heap soon enough) and odd packets of seeds,  as well as a locking mini hack saw (to paraphrase Crocodile Dundee “call that a saw?……That’s a saw”).

There are those that want to be wooed by a supermarket, seduced by the soft lighting, emotive marketing and sexy packaging, but I have grown to like the Lidl way of doing things and – like many other consumers – am happy to roll my sleeves up and grapple with toilet roll holders and knitted skull caps for kittens (I think I made that one up) in order to find a good value seed tray.

So, I’ve got the “brushes” – and I have even got the “paints” for my garden art work, as I finally took delivery of a box-load of seeds off the internet.

Just need to get to work.  Roll on Easter.