Day 37 of the 100 day project

A different sort of day today, quite far removed from the little by little approach I have taken so far with the 100 day project.  It has been a beautiful day of warm sun up here and although I did an hour of my Spanish I could not bear to be inside for the two hours I had planned.  It will cool down soon enough, tomorrow by the look of the weather forecast, so today was for being outside.


Ian has been repairing the raised beds in the kitchen garden.  This is a job which takes time and there was such a lot of weeding and garden work to do down there I abandoned the cutting garden for now and spent my time today weeding the beds he had finished so that we could work together.

One of these beds, the third one along that you can see here, is full of peony, sweet cicely and hellebores.  It has also been invaded by the ever present creeping buttercup.  I removed loads of it into the pink wheelbarrow.  Then I inspected the mint bed, the second one along.  This has chives at either end and six different varieties of mint, from culinary mint, spearmint to basil and lime mint.  I haven't decided whether to empty the beds and replant them from pieces of mint as it is important that the varieties don't grow together.  When they intermingle they lose their distinct flavours and become a rather muddy tasting general purpose mint.


It was good to see the beds looking crisp and clear again.


And the paths are swept.  The blossom on the apple trees at the far end will be out soon.  All day long the swallows whizzed in and out of the stone pigsty and out over the valley the buzzards soared lazily on the rising thermals.

A day to savour.

Comments

  1. What a beautiful and satisfying day it must have been. Your beds are looking really good and they are inspiring me! The Great Dane has been at work for quite some time now on four raised beds. Two are finished and two, nearly. I can't wait to plant them up, but first will come the rather daunting task of filling them with soil.
    Good luck with the mint!

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    1. It is generally a good day when we work together like that! I just need to work out the best approach with the mint!

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  2. Hello Elizabeth, wonderful raised beds and all what grows in it. A very good example for our future veggie garden. But for the moment, just to be dreamed of as we are in the middle of moving organisation - moving house is one thing, moving a farm is another and moving country on top of it, is a huge task. But we keep 'the magic of moving' in our heads by dreaming of the future. Take care and enjoy those magic days of May. xxx

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    1. What a huge task you are undertaking! Very best of luck and I am sure it will all be worth it. That's a good phrase for what you are doing: the magic of moving! And yes too to the magic of May. I love it!

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    2. Forgot to mention: our removal is called 'operation daffodil' ;-)

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  3. Lovely! Last photo: is that a water garden at the far end beside the glass house?

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    1. Yes, it is a small pond with some fish in it. It sounds lovely to call it a water garden but maybe a bit grand for what it is!!

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  4. What a great feeling of accomplishment you must have today! I was wondering about the water too, but decided maybe it was the pigsty. I love the idea of mint and it is in so many recipes, but I am allergic to it so never plant it. I've read though, that it should be planted in well drained containers sunk into the soil, to prevent their spreading.

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    1. Ah no, the pigsties are made of stone with slate roofs. I will put a picture up sometime! You are so right about the spreading of mint. Mine are supposedly in slate lined beds to stop the spread but the mint goes on the march regardless!

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  5. You are ahead of us, but husband only has the weekends, and our garden is too wet when it rains. But still, we feel we moved ahead over the weekend as well. Wasn't it glorious?

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    1. It was fabulous. Could just do with some more just like it!!

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  6. This slow and steady 100-day commitment is really beginning to show its worth, isn't it?

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    1. I suppose it is. Sometimes it feels like just another demand upon my time but then it throws out something special which would never have happened without it. Tricky..

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