Well for the last couple of weeks about the most I have been doing in my garden has being trying to get the grass cut between downpours
As well as constantly having to adjust the mowers blade to try to get an even cut
(even resorting to using a file on the blades)
I think I managed to bend one on the cylinder when I was making a start on attempting to resurrect my mum & dads lawn
(Mum managed to burn huge bare streaks on it with feed & weed, bless her)
I have been collecting seeds as well with ones from the double poppies for man & beast
My mate down the yard (who's outside tap I use for the hose pipe), His wife's dad has been dumping plants on them like mad this year
with tomatoes that are of triffid proportions
To Just handing her 2 strawberry plants and saying oh their about read for potting on
Knowing she doesn't have any pots never mind compost
So I banged them in a tub for them & peg 3 of the runners down in to smaller pots & left them for 2 weeks
Last week I cut them from the original plants and then pegged some of the runners in to more pots
Looks like it will be 15 plants from them
I will probably give most of them away same goes for the seeds, but that's one of the bits of gardening I enjoy most
and here are a few of the plants I have waiting to go in / work out where to put
Oregano, 3 each of 3 different pinks, lavender that I got going convinced I would need to fill gaps in the ones I did last year
and some garlic that I have started far to early, but what the hell
So with the poppies in next doors bit being well past it and having more seeds from them than you could shake a stick at I stared to clear them last week
Got about 1/3 done
Yesterday morning I was up at silly o'clock but after reading StonedSince'67 latest update with a coffee and smoke
I was determined to get some more done
and was out ripping poppies up before 06:30
About another 1/3 of the poppies ripped up and then a bit of a hoeing over trying to avoid the foxgloves & ladies mantel that was under the poppies
It has given some light to the nasturtiums that came up where I dumped a load of bad clay like soil from mine in march and doesn't look to empty
To my shame I am not composting the poppies mainly due to lack of space and a mate has offered to get rid of anything I want to
But once I had, had my play in next doors bit I had to do a shuffle with my compost, take a load out of the bottom of the bin small amount of that fed back in on the top
then take some of the dryer from the over spill heap and add that to the bin, then the rest that came from the bottom of the bin was mixed in to the heap
giving me room for stuff out of my garden
The lettuces I had planted had got seriously out of hand so they came out, but I have had a good amount off them, then it was more or less just cutting a few things back to give room to others
pulling any weeds I could see/get to as well as lifting a few geraniums and campanulas that had popped up
If they survive I will probably stick them in next doors bit
so here are a few photos of yesterday just before I had a bloody good soak
they were taken about 13:30 ish and the shadow from the house on the lawn tells me the year is marching on
the only thing I did after these was cut all the flowers from all the pinks for the house, then gave it all a good soaking once the sun was off it
as even after the relatively wet couple of weeks here when I lifted the lettuces I noticed that as an old manager of mine (when I was still allowed to play with the big hammers & spanners) would have put it
"It was as dry as a nuns"
TTFN
