Thursday 26 March 2009

Sunny Saturday

We had a lovely weekend, finally getting back out in the garden. We moved all our plants back into the greenhouse and spent a sunny Saturday repotting everything. Garden Girl watched my sister repot some tomato plants and asked to have a go herself, so we let her get stuck in. I must admit, I expected we might sacrifice a few plants in the spirit of letting her have a go but I was wrong. She very gently pulled the tender plants out and dropped them carefully in the little holes she had made in the soil with her finger.

When she got fed up of this I offered her the option of going to the playground or weeding the front garden with my sister. I imagine I was rather more pleased than my sister when she chose the latter option, as she now had no choice but to get stuck into the weeds. They did a great job though and I am sure our neighbours will also appreciate the work, as I must admit, my front garden can get a little neglected when we are so busy sorting out our vegetable patch.

At the end of the day Garden Girl delighted in laying the seed potatoes out ready to sprout. Many of them had already started to sprout well, so we should be able to get these in the ground at the weekend which Garden Girl is looking forward to. I think the thought of one potato turning into lots of potatoes is an exciting prospect for her and she keeps asking me when we will bury them.

Garden Boy, meanwhile, was in his element, happy to while away his time filling pots with compost for me and indulging his appetite for soil. He also treated the lawn to a nice scattering of compost so I think next time I'll set him up filling pots on the raised beds so he can work on improving our soil there. As it was Garden Boy's christening on Sunday we had family and friends visiting, many of whom commented on the poor quality of our soil. There were many mutterings about how we will be lucky to grow anything in the hard clay and rubble that fills our raised beds. Garden Dad protested that he and his Dad had already removed a huge quantity of rubble at the end of last year when they built the beds for us and we have yet to dig compost through it (a little late we know). But I think perhaps everyone was right and we might need to think about removing some of the rubble filled clay and add more compost than we had originally intended. Garden Dad is happier to let the soil improvement take a slower course, gradually improving over the years. We will have to mull this over and take a good look at the weekend.

Although we didn't get the seeds packets out and plant anything new it feels good to be on top of what we have already started and now we are ready to get going with more this weekend. Lets just hope its not too wet.

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