21st of May 2013

Well I did it. I posted my first blog. It has been a strange morning. I feel slightly elated after writing down all that. Going over the past made me realise just how far I have come but also still how far I can and will go.I have to watch myself when i'm like this that I dont get too high, cos then their is the anti climax. Keep it real.  I've been up since 3am penning and posting the first episode. I went out and bought planted some seeds at about 5.30am. A few flowers this time as I have been concentrating on Veg. I had been in aldis and seen some at 37p a packet, I am convinced they cant be any good for that, but i'm going to give them some tlc and see if they grow. Just some cottage garden favourites, that I can dot into the flower beds as I make space later on. Cosmos sonata dwarf mixed, Godetia little frills mixed and Alyssum snow carpet because I love its honey scented fragrance on a hot summers day. If we ever get one. I am not buying many perennials this year as the garden, whilst quite charming, is knotted with both perennial and annual weeds I wont get cleared, so annuals to fill in the gaps is a cheap way of prettying up and it wont matter about the weeds getting entangled as they will all be dug up and thrown away at  the end of the year.

I decided to start the garden renovations on the vegetable plot first as it will give me good organic crops and save me some money, an essential as I am surviving on benefit at the moment.  Atos have decided I am fit to go back to work wether I feel ready or not so I am keeping my eyes open for any suitable job that might come my way, it may well pan out for the best but its still scary. Still i'm up for it.  I am feeling optomistic today.

Last bank holiday was such beautiful weather I was out in the garden nearly the whole three days. I prepared the ground that I had dug out old raspberry canes from and went to the garden centre in Llanfoist that a friend had just introduced me to. They did a really good selection of the usual and a few more difficult to find vegetable seedlings in strips, which would be plenty for my requirements. If I was still growing for my family it would have probably worked out much cheaper to grow them from seed.  But i'm not and this was perfect. I bought Runner bean plants, some hispi cabbages that grow quite small, some purple sprouting broccoli, Cavello de nero kale, some Russian black kale (red in colour) some ruby chard,  and red oak leaf lettuce, Suzan lettuce and lollo rosso and lollo bionda (i'll check that later for accuracy) a couple of things I cant remember right now, thats age for you. I also bought two tomato plants to grow on, one of which was called Vanessa, so a must have purchase.

I was so excited when I got home I started straight away planting everything in the garden. No straight rows for me! The beds are an irregular curved shape so I decided to go with the flow. The first thing I did was to put up the canes  for the runner beans. I decided to put up a wigwam as the bed is semi circular and it would follow the contour partly. Having put in the runner beans I planted the lollo lettuces inbetween the canes and a few in the centre as they will be ready to harvest hopefully before the beans grow up and block out the light. Then I planted a hispi cabbage at the bottom of each cane. You may think I am cramming it all in and you are right. But I had prepared the soil well and enhanced its nutrient status with some good old blood fish and bone and also the cabbages can feed from the roots of the runner beans as they grow nitrogen fixing nodules on them and cabbages are heavy nitrogen feeders.
 I then proceeded to put in the Russian kale in a little semi circular row to embrace the canes. The sprouting broccoli was the next to go in I planted that in a block of six plants, not too close together as they are greedy little buggers and need lots of nutrient. The cavelo de niro was planted equidistantly between. I then made little groups of the ruby chard and interplanted them with lettuce Suzan.

There is another slender curved bed that I had cleared of strawberry plants, leaving only the plants around the edge as I'm not overly fond of strawberries. I planted that up in patterns too with the remaining plants. Satisfied I had done a good days work I watered then all in, a huge chore as I have to borrow my neighbours tap and do it with watering cans that seem heavier and heavier as I carried them up and down the terraced steps. My back, which is weak, was compalining and I ached like mad unused to the physical work as I am, but as I came back to the house, I had such a lovely feeling of contentment it was good compensation.

The next day I decided to clear out the raspberry canes from the other small plot on the other side, they were yellow fruiting raspberries, it seemed such a shame to get rid of all this good fruiting stock and I had had fabulous fruit crops the year before, but leafy crops are what I use most of and I needed the space for those and other crops, so reluctantly I set about digging out  the congested canes. with my bad back I can only dig in short spurts do it took me the rest of the day to dig out a satisfactory area, with lots of sitting in the sun and cups of tea being consumed while I did it. When I stopped i was shattered but I was so satisfied and I realised I was so happy, happier than I had felt for a long time and satisfied too. As I suffer with depression it was a feeling I am unused to and that made me happeir still lol.

Bank holiday monday found me back out in the garden yet again! This has been unheard of for a long time. That day I went back to the garden centre and bought some propagating trays. I had already purchased some seeds and my sister had given me some packets of salad seedling when she had visited last Autumn with my mother. She has been trying to entice me back into gardening for several years, bless her, and I think she thought I would get excited by all the seeds she had bought with her. But I had just chosen a multi pack with salad vegetables from the huge selection she ahd bought up.

I planted seeds of Rocket, little gem lettuces, spring onions, tomatoes, outdoor cuecumbers, curly kale, Rainbow chard, and red and yellow oakleaf lettuce. which have all now sprouted and I spent yesterday pricking them out into pots or individual cells.

After the glorious joy and sunshine of the bank holiday the rains came and we were under a downpour for several days. I was disappointed not to get back out into the garden but happy because I knew it would water in the plants good and deep. To be honest I was also aching like mad as I was so unused to the physical labour so glad of the rest. I had just started at weight watchers the week before and I lost four and a half pounds that first week rather than the usual one I lose with great effort!  My weight is another thing I fight with weight gain bought on by depression. I'm giving it my best shot at the moment and trying to give up smoking. I am quite hard on myself but it seems to be all or nothing.  At least I can take or leave drink!

In this weather the hedges have been growing like mad and I thought if I buy myself the tools to do it myself, I will always be able to have a little go at it and keep them under control if I do little and often after the first really hard back breaking work.  So I bought an electric hedge trimmer, a strimmer and a couple of jojo cables to enable me to do the work. They have been sat unused for two weeks or so.


This Saturday an old friend of mine, Sabrina,  came up to visit from London.  I also had the plumber in the house to fit me a new bath as my old one cracked. I had probably not seen Sabrina for about 20 years. She had found me on facebook about  three weeks earlier and excitedly arranged to come up and see me. I was delighted and had looked forward to her coming with glee. There is something about my friends who have known me for years that revitalises me, I see myself through their eyes for a while, not the sad jaded person that i had come to despise, but vital and capable.    At least that is how they make me feel and Sabrina was no exception. Presenting me with a good strong columbian coffee in case I had turned into a herbal tea drinker, we made a pot and sat down to dissemble the past. I did not realise that she had not know that Vinda and I were split up and that i was living on my own, so that was briefly gone over. She said to me, I cant believe what you put up with, the Vanessa I knew would never have put up with that. We did not spend too long on all that, there were far too many interesting stories to share. I had not known she had been working as a stand up comedian doing the rounds and also built herself a considerable property portfolio, all inspiring stuff. We had a great evening with much laughter (whats that alien sound coming out of my mouth) and I woke happily at six the next day and went out into the garden with a cuppa. I was going to the usual sunday car boot and Sabrina came there with me before scooting of to Gloucester to meet up with another friend. I was reluctant to say goodbye but got into the buzz of the car boot, buying some more tomato plants of different varieties and scooping a pump action screwdriver I had been wanting for £1.50.

When I got home I missed Sabrina. I knew the only thing to do was to busy myself, so I unpacked the hedge trimmer and decided to trim back the hedge that was encroaching on a delightful small patio area I have. after a while i got the hang of the trimmer and made quite a neat job of it, scooping all the debris into the green bags and carrying it to the pick up point. I then swept and cleaned the patio area and started to shape up and trim some other shrubs. By this time I relaised that the trimmer i had bought was not man enough for the job. It kept cutting out about every two minutes and made the job a real chore. Such a shame as i had left behind a fabulous echo petrol hedge trimmer and strimmer when I left the family home. I shall attempt to take it back and complain about it and just have to spend a bit more cash on a decent one.

Yesterday found me back planting in the garden again, although it is a little early to plant them out I decided on the sacrifce method of planting, do or die, whhile there is still time for me to replace the plants with new ones. So I took out the two yellow courgettes and a green one that i had bought midweek on yet another trip to the garden centre and planted out my tomatoes and courgettes. I'm starting to run out of space already so will ahve to think about clearing more ground. I intend planting some in among the flowers too cottage garden style but have noticed the slugs have eaten the few I had already done that with, I shall have to wage war on them.  I also planted out all the pots of kitchen herbs that had been bought in the supermarket, from my kitchen window ledge. flatleaf and curly parsley, corriander, chives, and basil.  phew. Well thats kind of bought you right up to date with my garden and me. From now on my posts will probably not be as extensive. As I hope to keep them shorter but regular. I have had a few people post encouarging posts on Facebook regarding my efforts and if you ahve got this far I hope I have not bored you to tears.  If nothing else this has been really cathartic and got me buzzing. I'm thinking now I should go to bed and have a short nap as I really must take care of myself and Its 3pm now and ive not eaten breakfast. So i'm off to get some weight watchers style. I may just get the strimmer out and test it on the grass paths....Cheerio for now...