Of gardening

Categories: life-in-general

Date: 28 January 2011 08:11:05

Of which we have been doing some, lately :) The food allergy issues appear to be coming under control, sort of – I still have to have some iron infusions over the next couple of months, to get my iron stores up, and I’ve discovered that I can’t take lots of medication as (I’m assuming) the fillers/sweeteners appear to be a major problem, but other than that it’s going okay. So, the upshot is, that I actually have energy – and am starting to catch up on what feels like about 10 years worth of stuff I just couldn’t be bothered with – a little known side effect of low iron levels is mild depression – which in my case manifested itself (I’m working out) as more like apathy and extraordinary tiredness – not only did I not have energy to do stuff I didn’t have energy to THINK about doing stuff … so I just didn’t. Mr Tasmania is a man of considerable forbearance!!!! Anyhoo, even tiny things are now being done. One thing which I’m getting to is the garden. Our garden is large – that is, it’s over a large area (I’m talking acreage) and, even though there is an enormous amount to do over the next 30 or 40 years, we have made a pretty good start in terms of earth works, fence building, garden bed placement, gravel shovelling, and pine bark mulching. Some of this needs to be done continually but the pockets are, unfortunately, not ankle deep and therefore they all just have to wait their turn. Some of the things waiting their turn are our raised garden beds – or ‘imminent’ raised garden beds :) … these will go at the bottom of our plateau, eventually. We’ve had earth moving to do which involves things going past where they will be located so they’re not happening yet – but I wanted to get some things in the ground, particularly some rosemary bushes which had started looking very sad in their pots and some rhubarb which a friend gave me which I didn’t want to lose. So, given that we had already cleared off and bordered a long area of garden bed alongside the driveway (30 – 40 metres long, 2 – 4 metres deep, depending on which end you’re at) I decided I’d fence off a bit of that (taking the dog into consideration!) and start planting a few things. So far I’ve put in the herbs which I’ve discovered did not grow too well behind our tinted windows – which was a pity because they were in lovely blue and white pots – will have to rethink where I’m going to use those! Anyway – basil, coriander, chives, Italian (flat leaf) parsley, and some mint and sage given to me at Christmas have all gone in. The sage is not coping well so it’s coming out this afternoon, and the coriander has gone to seed (as it does) so I’ve put some more seed in which, if I don’t forget it’s there and pull it out as a weed, will hopefully spring up and take over. I’ve put in the three rosemary bushes (pink, blue, and coastal (groundcover) and the rhubarb, and I’m going to move some very tough spinach which survived me totally forgetting about the punnet of seedlings and leaving it in the baking sun with no water except rain for about 3 weeks – deserves a chance, don’t you think? This weekend I’m also going to plant up some pumpkin seeds and whatever else I can find in my little tin of seeds into pots so they get a good start, and I may extend the garden beds a bit. I’ve also got some cold weather tomatoes to put in – I had some last year which were massive failures (my fault) and also planted a couple of tomato seedings in a large pot where they proceeded to struggle and fail (also my fault – completely ignored them – can’t do that with tomatoes!). I’ve also got 4 black and 2 pale blue minature agapanthus to go in on the plateau cliff and a jade plant to transplant as well as the jacaranda (now nearly 40cm tall!) into a large pot. So there’s lots to do – but I’m actually enjoying it rather than being frustrated because one of my favourite things has just become another thing I can’t be bothered doing :) Oh yes, and we’re going to the Foreshore Market on Sunday morning – if the plant man is there I will be buying some more punnets of a spreading petunia which is super bright dark pink – they grow enormously fast and I have just the spot!