Gardening

 The effects of my chest cold linger on, lots of coughing and very little energy. In spite of my lethargy I have managed to do a few things.

I needed to get my garden in order, mainly because on a trip to Jamestown I couldn't resist some seedlings, and they needed a new home rather badly. My garden has been reduced to a 4m stretch just outside my door. I'm not supposed to handle potting mix, or dig in the garden, but the gardening habit is hard to break. My flowers bring me so much happiness, I'd hate to do without them entirely. I wanted to help preserve the plants I have, which have survived several harsh summers, and scatter in some new autumn colour where I could.

The seedlings were shifted into small pots to grow on, and with Mereth's help I moved a lot of old pots around, chucked heaps of things that were just rubbish now, and tried to design a layout that would enable me to have the most garden in the least space. That meant going up, and I've stacked smaller pots on top of the largest ones, and made shelves from bricks and wood that elevate troughs so I can see what's happening in them. 

Setting up the infrastructure of a garden is time consuming, plus I didn't want to spend anything if I could help it.  I just gathered together all sorts of stuff that's been lying around, and gave it a new purpose. The terracotta pots we got for 20cents a few years ago, and when I trim my geraniums back I'll put the cuttings in those pots. They're on an old metal hospital table that used to go over the beds. I picked that up from the side of the road about 15 years ago, and it's had many uses since then. I've been at this for days but I think I'm close to planting out what I want, and that will be the fun part. I have to wear a mask when I'm near the potting mix but once it's all finished it will just require watering and fertilizing, and I'll be able to handle that.

Mereth has always loved growing vegetables best, and I am a flower grower. I do have a few things like spring onions and peppers, but it's the flowers that make my heart go pitter-pat. And while it's all been fun, I need to get back into the sewing room, because playing with fabric also makes me happy.