First hack n slash of the year

Last time I said the next few post would be about the Japan trip. This isn't one of them. I'm having a spot of bother coralling that content so instead I'll tell you what we've been up to today.

When it comes to weeding, hubby tends to favour a scorched earth policy. It ain't subtle, but by god it gets the job done. It's efficient at bringing a weed-donimated border to order, but it does also tend to involve colloteral damage: the blitzing of innocents.

Potato plot

Yesterday, hubby floated the idea of spending some of Sunday planting out the potatoes that are currently sprouting on the kitchen window sill. Hmm... this means clearing some space for them.

The best spot I think is the big bed at the bottom right of the garden, but there are some items of value already in there.

Won't somebody save the children?!

So, who needs protecting from the marauding ground clearance squad?

• Cyclmen: A few years ago, this preminiscient specimen thankfully had the foresight to emigrate from a bed that no longer exists (lost to the pizza oven project). & very happy it is in its new home too.
• Primrose: Also evacuees from the defunct pizza bed, these sorry survivors may not last much longer. Sadly these poor buggers seem to get smaller, not bigger.
• Ferns: Most of them have survived last year's reshuffle in the corner of this bed, I think... most of them...
• Anemone: Planted when the ferns were shuffled, but it has had a terrible winter - we came back from our holidays to find it fair flattened by a slab of sandstone from the boundary wall. Oops :/ I hope it recovers cos its late Autumn white blooms were just lovely.
• Snowdrops: We appear to be massively down on snowdrops this year. Dunno what that's all about - we usually can't move for them. Maybe they've paid the price for last year's restructuring.
• Daffs & tulips: Bought in a giddy moment at the garden centre & planted along to boundary wall for no good reason. But at least I know where they are...
• Clematis: In another giddy moment last year, this time at Asda, I bought 4 climbers for a tenner. Just too good a bargain to miss, only I wasn't really sure where to put them. So I've procrastinated - they're in pots in various locations "to see how they work". Fair play to the one by the yard door as it's showing green shoots already. On the upside, by having it still in its pot, the one by the boundary wall is real easy to shift out of the way of today's groundworks.
• Horseradish: Very little of it above the ground at the mo, but I did mark it out during last year's labelling frenzy. Man, I'm loving those labels right now - they're telling me it's the dwarf narcissus bulbs that are poking their heads through; & this one's telling me not to flatten the horseradish.
  
  & finally, & most importantly
• Nameless plant from a friend: Bunged into this bed for "safe keeping" during the restructuring & then lost under the rampaging burdock that lept the wall. This is the most precious to me cos its not one I've bought. Donated plants seem that bit more special. They're not my plants; they're their plant in our garden. & I always refer to them that way: Richard's raspberries or Anna's purple ground cover plant.
  
  Problem is, I'm not exactly sure what this plant looks like, which is going to make saving it a little trickier. Pants.

Division of labour

So, as I said up top, when it comes to ground clearance, hubby is very enthusiastic. And I am glad for that: it was hearing him battering through the swollen garage door & out into the garden this lunchtime that spurred me off the sofa & into action, to channel his energy.

We established our goals:

1. Don't flatten the valuables.
2. Evict the weeds.
3. Create a potato patch alongside the path.
4. Find the lost plant if poss.

It's good to have a plan.

The bed's a quarter circle easily big enough for us to work in without tripping over each other.

Hubby was on potato plot duty: clearing the strip closest to the path but being careful of the cyclamen, the clematis & the bulbs. He knows some of our regular plants, so he can spot an aquilegia & they can all come out of this bed today cos we've got loads elsewhere.

For myself, I'm hunting the missing plant whilst also clearing the marauding burdock & ivy from the lea of the boundary wall. The burdock didn't go down without a fight:

Burdock burrs: nature's Velcro

Don't I know you?

There were loads of green leaves underneath last year's dead but still bolshy burdock stem, so I'd assumed they were either new leaves of this year's burdock, or new baby burdocks. But as I put the big fork in & lifted the 1st clump, I spotted flowers amongst the foliage. Hang on... this isn't burdock then... Looking over the rest of the leaves I found more little flowers. Ace! I've found the missing plant! It was right in front of me all the time... I'm an idiot.

It's been busy while I've been ignoring it & had fended well amongst our usual bullies. So I lifted a big chunk of it, dumped it into a bucket of water so it didn't dry out while I dug over the rest of the bed... I say I dug over the rest of the bed, hubby volunteered to do it. As I said, he does like a bit of slash & burn, & Sunday is usually an exercise day for him... I'm sounding pathetic so I'll shut up & get busy with the coffee machine...

All done

Bed turned, weeds expunged, potatoes planted, friend's plant re-homed, garden waste wheelie bin filled & 2 bags over. Now to do the washing up.

Gardening has helped me get into the zen of the clean up. Every job creates mess & you could view the tidying as a bit of a chore (OK, to be honest, when tackling the hedge from hell, it is). But I've found I really like cleaning the mud off the tools & putting them away on the rack. Does that make me sound like James May arranging his spanners? Don't care, cos I like an ordered socket set too so nur!

However I always forget to clean my boots. They may be on my my feet but they're just not on my radar. I use these very same boots when I ride my bike, & that usually means I realise they're still caked in half the garden just as I'm pulling them on before heading out to work.

But today was different cos hubby was gardening too, & his boots were the 1st, nay the only thing he cleaned. He hates cleaning up after a job, but he does look after his boots, & so following his good lead my boots actually got a timely scrub today too. I might even polish them once they're dry. Maybe.

Tomorrow morning I'll not only have clean boots, but I'll open the curtains & see a corner of order amongst the chaos. A good start to the coming gardening year.