Well, It’s Been a Minute

Where I try to recap the past month and barely scratch the surface….

House renovations are in full play.  Tried listening to the real estate pundit advice to live in a place for several months and get the sense of it before tackling anything major but couldn’t handle the cracked tiles I can’t get clean and the plumbing that is full of surprises.

We have also declared war on termites and worked an uncomfortable truce with some cute mice.

This has made our decision to let the land outside do its thing for a year to see what grows well and what doesn’t uncomplicated. We don’t have the bandwidth for a garden anyway with work travel and the ongoing houseflux. 

We have lived here now for about two and a half months, and it has been full of staggered delight as the early spring expressionless land pops out botanical surprises in the long-untended garden tangle as the days become longer and warmer.

The temperature here this week has been in the high 30’s and by late morning the heat and sun have chased most people into shade or water or indoors.  Today it made me retreat into the coolish living room where the windows have all been blocked off prepped by the painters and there I sought reprieve with an episode of Gardener’s World and a glass of iced tea.

And wouldn’t you know, how apropos, the show featured a couple who had taken stewardship of Oak Cottage in the UK.  The garden there as well had been untended for several years and they left it much untouched for a year while gently learning and earning its confidences.  And now it is featured in the UK’s National Garden Scheme.

I am cataloguing the treasures here as well to work with or around them next year when we have properly mapped what we wish to do with this property.

But see what I have found.

But also…

And so much more.

I have been known to head into a garden centre for a packet of seeds and leave with a full trunk of plants the way my friends head into Costco for a flat of eggs and leave with a full trunk of Kirkland.

Not next year.  These plant pearls are going to be next year’s stars of the garden. And I am going to save a fortune.

We did, however, till about 800 square feet of fallow ground to plant sunflowers. The centre of the back garden area was solid weed turf.  It was a slog.  The ground so dry my nostrils and ears were black with dust dirt when we were done. And my arm is still throbby more than a month later from basically jackhammering that piece of land.

I wanted to experiment with West Coast seeds Tall Blend Sunflower Blend. Thought I was clever and picked up an Earthway seeder to efficiently plant straight rows.  But as it was a blend of sunflowers, the seeds were also a blend of sizes so no seed plate would have worked.  So Ben staked and strung the rows and I did my best to mix up the seed sizes.  That was a long and fruitful day.  I slept very well that night.

The weeds picked right up where they left off as well along with some self seeded beets so I spent another couple of days in the patch on my knees   The beet tops we ate.  Sweet and delicious. The ground, though, is sandy loam and does not retain water.  So, we watered well, mulched the bare dirt and we are hoping the plants will hold up in this heat without too much coddling.  We will see how this goes. So far so good.

Then we will just dig them under to add some organic matter to the soil for next year’s cultivating adventures.

I have never felt unsure, unstable and alive. This experience is exercising some unflexed mind and physical muscle. This is good for me. My work effort and wellbeing are better for it and I am grateful.