"I think that no matter how old or infirm I may become, I will always plant a large garden in the spring. Who can resist the feelings of hope and joy that one gets from participating in nature's rebirth?" - Edward Giobbi
May is thought to have been named after the Greek goddess Maia, who is associated with fertility, the land and its growth. This seems appropriate at the moment as the recent sunshine is having an effect on the garden and the seeds we’ve sown. The tub of potatoes is full of leaf popping through the soil I have earthed up. Many of our seeds are finally coming through. And I’ve found the first plant with white and greenfly in the garden.
The main problem with a period of sunny weather, is that we have no water in the garden, so the tubs dry out. This could mean losing any new plants and seedlings that we have started to grow there. We had this problem last summer too. It was quite a sight seeing volunteers pushing a wheelbarrow full of plastic water bottles down the street from the yard we use, over and over again. This year we are mixing water granules in with the soil. This is in the hope that it will absorb enough water on wet days to keep plants going on dry days. But we still need to water daily through dry periods. So more volunteers are needed to help with this, and you don’t even need to like gardening…
It was full moon on the 8th and it has sent me potty. We have been receiving lots more donated pots and containers. I have carried on repotting. And I’ve prepared 3 troughs ready to go along one side of the rails to the garden. At the moment these have some small cuttings of Christmas box in them. I’m hoping this will become a low hedge that will flower around Christmas. But meanwhile I am filling in the spaces between the cuttings with some geraniums and a mixture of seeds for a bit of summer colour.
More pots of seeds have been sown too, this time, squash, courgettes and pumpkins. I’m trying lots of different colours and varieties and will see what comes up before planting them out in the veg garden. Most seed varieties this year are new to us. It’s good to experiment.
The competition to name the bug hotel has just finished and the entries will be looked at soon. I wonder what name will win? I’ve put simple insect spotter sheets in the book tree. So you can hunt round the hotel looking for all the insects on the sheet. Incidentally as well as the insects, there have been a few new arrivals at the bug hotel. The Potts family have moved into the penthouse suite.
The Blooming Old Gardener