A bank holiday

Oh, the thrill of it – three whole days to garden! But oh, the pain of it; my poor back has been complaining like mad! What have I been doing? I've been painting the fence (yes really, that thing never ends, does it?), Sawing and pruning the tree between our garden and Jack's. Digging out the whole pastel border, planting... too early... allium bulbs and tulips, eating raspberries (well, there has to be some gain from it all), repositioning the broccoli before giving into sprinkling the slug pellets around them, although I have protected the possible hedgehog by edging the whole lot with a barricade. (I awoke with a start on Friday night, realising that I had not protected my expensive plugs of broccoli and ended up going out in to the garden in my dressing gown at 1.59am to shine a light at the tender plants and pick up the slugs that were making their slimy way to get their late night snack. “I don't think so”, I muttered as I grabbed each one and flung it over the fence.)

I digress, what else have I been doing? I've been chuckling at the hens eating cold fried rice whilst making this sweet sound of absolute delight. It's sort of like a conversation with a mouthful of bubble-gum. I know I haven't explained it well at all but it's delightful and made me laugh out loud. We've also finally put supports up the wall to grow the wisteria up and around the French windows and I've cut back the dead flowers on many a plant along with tidying up the roses.

I have picked sweet Trail of Tear beans from our wigwam of green, I've clipped back the herbs to keep them shaped, I've tried a few leaves of the salad I planted a few weeks ago, I've scooped up cat poo, I've filled and refilled the bird feeders with peanuts. I've hacked at some overgrown brambles at the back of our garden before giving up to drink tea instead, infinitely wiser choice. I've made garlic bread with our own freshly dug up garlic and a lemon from the lemon tree. Home made chips from our potatoes to accompany our fresh cucumber and roasted aubergine from the greenhouse and I've also plaited the garlic and onions to dry.

Yet it's just a drop in the ocean of all that needs doing and now Luke tells me his long green tomatoes have succumbed to the dreaded blight. He's despondent about growing tomatoes having lost them for the second year running. It was a humble tomato plant that got Luke into gardening and now he' s losing his green fingers Hopefully, the success of those purple egg plants will keep his pecker up! And if all that wasn't enough, in my filthy trousers and dirt encrusted top I can always be used as a scarecrow!