Tuesday 2 July 2013

Battle of the Weeds

After all the rain this week my garden went into overdrive. But as every gardener knows, for every inch of growth put on by my crops, there was 4" of growth by the weeds. I've never quite figured out how that works but it does. It is a fight now to keep on top of it, not helped by the fact that Michael is away for the most of the summer as of yesterday. Finding a summer job round here is just about impossible, so he's had to find work elsewhere.

Still, the beans are going up the strings/wire they have been told to go up, and apart from the caulflowers, which Michael killed (don't even ask) everything is coming along nicely. We have enough spinach to feed the 5000 but I like spinach so most of it will actually feed me.

Because we don't use any chemicals on our property it's a bit of a wildlife sanctuary. Our pond is teeming with life, frogs and dragonflies galore, and there are butterflies everywhere too. The Monarchs are due any day now (how do I know? watch this: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/maps/galleries/2013/monarch_an_spring2013.html) and it's always a relief when I see them. I worry about them you know. There is milkweed waiting for them here.

So where are the flowers...well, the lupins have finished, the hollyhocks haven't bloomed yet, so it's a bit of a gap. I grew up learning about the May gap, here it's a June gap, and every year I plan on fixing it and I never do. But it's good that everything is late this year because, of course, we're aiming for flowers in September. They are exactly where they should be, more by luck than judgement and we will have a gorgeous display by then. In the meantime we're beavering away trying to make everything tidier. So just to thwart us, two of our trees are dying. I know they have a lifespan like everything else, but talk about bad timing. Oy.




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