Busy being lazy

We’re beginning to realise just how time consuming a new house and new garden can become. The recent good weather we’re having here means that we can get out and do lots in the garden. The late run in the evenings is particularly welcome, even just to sit out with a glass of wine and enjoy what we have. Of course, such lazing around doesn’t get a blog written; something we’ve rather neglected over the last week or two. Also, much of what we’ve written seems to be rather obsessed on our increasingly cursed 48 square-foot bean bed, with little attention given to the remaining acre or so.

One area we’ve been particularly lackadaisical has been salads – it’s May and we’re still not cropping our own leaves! The salad bed has, rather shame-facedly, only now been sown with lettuce, rocket, radishes, scallions (spring onions) and more lettuce, with a row of Perpetual Spinach (on the right-hand side) planted out from the seed sown in the greenhouse. The bed itself is a wonderful old wooden washtub. Yes, we know it’s a real piece of craftsmanship (you should see the dovetail joints up close) and that our use of it is hardly befitting, but what else do you use a six-foot by three-foot wooden washtub for these days? On sowing the seed, however, we realised that not only had we not bothered sowing it earlier, but also that the salad seed tin was rather bare. An order has been dispatched to The Organic Centre to remedy this.

The other area that has been a little neglected has been the herbs. In truth, we inherited several mighty rosemary shrubs with the garden, and have also discovered some chives and mint. We were also able to take some pots of Oregano and Sage with us from the old house, so we’ve not been totally without. So, all-in-all, we didn’t need to do anything much with the herbs, hence the neglect. We did sow some Basil in March, but it spectacularly failed to do anything at all. Some more Basil has therefore been sown to remedy the situation, along with Coriander and Parsley.

Finally, a quick look in the greenhouse reveals that the tomatoes are doing well, and that the Brussels Sprouts need pricked out. Sadly, this serves as a reminder that we need to get the brassica bed dug and read for these plants (and the poor cabbages) soon – another obsession for May?