Gardening or DIY ?

A 4-day weekend – fantastic! Traditionally time to devote to DIY or gardening. I’ve already reached Monday and haven’t managed to achieve anything significant (yet), so today I got up bright and early (9am is definitely bright and early for a bank holiday!!), had the perfect breakfast after an Easter Sunday family lunch get together - cheesecake (cue the Peter Kay impersonation….). Then I watched a bit of TV. Now, watching TV during the daytime is usually against my religion, but being a bank holiday, the rules are allowed to change, so long as I still intend to use my day wisely. I watched ‘Homes under the Hammer’ with the very lovely Martin Roberts who used to be my next-door neighbour and still looks fabulous. I am currently thinking about how best to launch a new career as a property investor, so this was not simply a ‘still-in-my-pyjamas-slovenly-watching-daytime-tv-like-a-loser’ situation. This was RESEARCH! It was indeed very inspiring, and I’m only sorry that my current day job precludes me from conducting further similar research due to me having to be in my office 9-5, Mon-Fri.

So, suitably inspired, I decided to tackle some gardening today. I carefully and painstakingly prepared a garden design. Is it too late to be a garden designer?? I have a small garden and don’t have any lawn. Last summer I got a little shed and painted it to look like a beach hut. I plan to grow mostly vegetables, which is what I did last year, although perhaps a few less courgettes this year !! Then I set off to the garden center, bringing my plan and plant list so as not to get too distracted by all the lovely stuff they have to tempt impulsive Easter browsers. Ha ha - I’m not that susceptible (well, ok I am!!). The trick is to go to a garden centre which is not too huge and does not have lots of lovely, tempting stuff. Those of you in Surrey will be thinking of Garsons. A dream place if you have lots of money to spend! Luckily, my local garden centre is not like Garsons. So, I bought the seeds (guess which seeds??*) I had planned, and was only tempted to one extra packet – chard. Isn’t chard just the most beautiful, colourful veg ever?? I do hope this grows well.

I also treated myself to a clematis to grow up the fence at the end of my garden. I picked one with large,showy flowers. Keen gardeners will want to know what type of clematis it was. It was a blue one. Hope that helps! I hope to also buy a climbing honeysuckle for cover, colour and smell, but the limited range at my garden centre did not include such a plant.

I came home, fired up with enthusiasm and proceeded to dig my garden, removing all weeds, and turning over all the soil ready for the next stage of my vegetable plot plan. After several hours, digging, weeding, clearing, sweeping, I was feeling knackered and had backache. I did plant my clematis, but nothing else. Yet. Is it too soon, or does the earth need to be warmer (I read that in my gardening book). How can I tell when it’s warm enough? I also need to sort out my compost bin. It’s falling over with the weight of compost inside. I’ve been adding to it since last summer, so there must be some usable compost by now. I took a look inside and it looks pretty nasty. I watered my tubs and rhubarb with water from my water butt. Stood back and looked at all my hard work. How satisfying is that?


*obviously, Mr Fothergill’s seeds!!