I really like Spring-time, the season of blooming bulbs, returning birds and finally shaking of the last shackles of Winter. Of course, predicting when Spring will finally be sprungisn’t quite as easy as it once was but I’m fairly confident that it has now arrived, the real giveaway was the warm breeze, sunshine and all our daffodils bursting into bloom over the last week or so.
This is my second spring this year, my first spring was back in January sometime, which was silly really since that’s actually the middle of winter! Still, it got me started in the garden and today I finally got back into the garden for the first time since then … more-or-less!
Over the last week I’ve been out digging my new non-rabbit-proof vegetable patch which kinda beggars the question why I bother as anything I’m likely to plant in it will probably be eaten by the aforementioned. The only thing they didn’t touch last year was the broad beans, and some species of wasps got them … Here’s where I’ve been digging:
I have to pinch myself every-time I go up there … just look at the view! I don’t really care about the rabbit, it’s just a good excuse to go out and enjoy one of the ‘little things’ in life. I think though that I’ll be installing a rabbit proof fence in the near future as there is little more depressing in the garden than going to check on your ‘big’ plants only to discover that there’s nothing left other than a wee stem!
My main task today was planting out the 30 broad bean plants and 20 pea plants which I started off in our substitute green house, otherwise known as the ‘front porch’. Of course nothing is ever as simple as it should be and planting anything in my veg plot (above) really is pointless and beyond defence at the minute, so a substitute veg plot was required … of course! the flower border! Last year we had potatoes in it which required me to dig out hundreds of daffodil bulbs which I graciously donated to anyone who would take them!
Anyway, the border is easier to defend as it’s not so isolated as the ‘bit up the back’, here’s what we’ve got now:
Pretty isn’t it!!
What we have here is the remnants of an old chair that I found in the loft when we moved in some bricks, planks of wood and some netting. The whole thing is aimed at discouraging - obviously - the bunnies. Regrettably though it turned out I didn’t have enough netting to cover an area large enough to protect the peas as well, so this is just the broad beans planted up in three rows of ten … with luck they’ll still be there in the morning!
The peas, incidentally, have been repotted into troughs until such time as I can jimney something together (possibly in the border) to protect them too.
As for the sprintime surprise I alluded to in the title well:
Some of last years baby potatoes which we must have missed when we were digging them up last year. They just popped-up out of the ground as I forked it over to take this years offering. Yay! The daffodils weren’t such as a surprise as I’ve been watching them grow, but sheesh, you wouldn’t believe how many bulbs I took out of the border last year!
The daffs are in a vase now, along with the ones the dog keeps knocking over, and we had some of the tatties for dinner, yum! They’re just basic whites that you’d buy in the supermarket, but they taste so-o much better!!
