There’s always a lot in the media (especially at this time of year) about how you can save time in the garden, and about how you can have a beautiful and productive plot without spending your life outside tending it. And to a certain extent it’s true – there are plenty of techniques you can use to cut down on the time you need to spend outside to make your garden presentable.
But it’s also true that gardening is one of those activities where you get out what you put in, and that spending time outside in the garden has physical and mental benefits as well as being useful. The more time you spend outside, the more likely you are to be able to nip potential problems – pests, diseases and weeds) in the bud before they become real issues.
The picture above represents my gardening activities over the winter – I spent a lot of time on Facebook playing FarmVille and turning a virtual farm into a beautiful food forest. I enjoy seeing which unusual crops and trees they come up with on a regular basis, but once the weather improved this spring I decided it would be a better use of my time to go and play outside in the real garden instead. Last year’s garden was mediocre for various reasons; this year I want one packed with productive plants.
The plan is that I will try and spend a couple of hours outside each day, pottering in the garden and getting things done. It’s not a draconian rule – if I’m needed elsewhere, or don’t have the energy, then it won’t matter if I miss a day or too. The weather (which is very wet today, for which the garden is grateful) won’t be too much of an issue at this time of year when there’s lots of sowing to do that can be done indoors.
And so, hopefully, this blog will be more about work that I’ve done – and less about gardening in general – for the rest of the growing season.
Yesterday, for example, I sowed mixed salad and peas for pea shoots in containers for windowsill growing, as well as plenty of sunflowers. I sorted out a lot of old plant pots that I am intending to take to the Hampshire Green Fair and offer them as freebies to people who take part in my seed and seedling swap.
I layered the jostaberry, as it had a low-slung branch that was too good an opportunity to miss. I potted on 3 citrus plants and my new feijoa (a lovely, large plant I bought from the National Herb Center a couple of weeks ago).
And I moved several sets of seedlings outside to harden off (including my Petit Posies flower sprouts, which are looking well).
The next item on the list was a seaweed foliar feed for the fruit bushes, but I was too whacked to get that far, so it’s top of the list next time. Phew! I’m quite glad it’s raining today, so I can do some les intensive stuff :)