In The Garden

Throughout all the unpleasantness the garden has been both a refuge and a source of joy.

To be honest my little sitting area in the suntrap at the back has been a sanctuary and a refuge for much longer than that.

For the past few weeks Fester has been nagging about planting vegetables and actually helped refresh one of the raised beds.  He dug out the old compost, put in the contents of the wormarium, replaced the compost and filled the bed to the top with stuff from another bed.  I planted it with parsnips and yesterday planted the bed in front with ffa (broad beans) and more parsnips.  I also dug up some of the parsnips we planted last year for Sunday dinner.

As it was dry I decided to attend to the pond.

It was originally a clamshell sandpit which the Squireen was looking to rehome.   

I nested the two shells into each other, shoved it into the corner of the garden, surrounded it with a planter and old bricks, created an escape staircase inside and filled it with rainwater.  That was many years ago and it’s had frogspawn most years since, as well as providing drinking water for birds and beasties and a home to numerous water dwelling invertebrates, including snails rescued from Fester’s sampling trips.

In order to prevent sunshine making the plastic brittle, and to provide shelter and shade for the frogs I like to cover the top edges.  Broken terracotta chimney pots do the job really well, as do bits of pots or slices of bricks, but the smaller bits keep falling in. 

A few weeks ago I noticed a pile of terracotta tiles outside No12.  Following the adage “shy bairns get nowt” I asked if they were going spare and, if so, might I have some.  Kat kindly carried half a dozen over.

Trying not to disturb the frogspawn or resident frog too much, I delved into the water and pulled out all the fallen in bits.  I arranged the tiles around the edge and used the old bits to fill the gaps and add a bit of balancing weight.  Then put the fairies, gnomes and Bruce the headless cherub back in their places.

So many rectangular things look a little odd at present, but they’ll soon weather in.