spider's Journal

Tis but a passion

Every year I try to be a different gardener from the year before. I try not to make the same mistakes, try to improve on what I did the previous year and I make notes to myself on what annoyed me the previous year. I keep a bit of a log book to try and aid me and make me a better gardener. A complete waste of time for me anyway.

I have just being reading over a few notes from the previous years and to be honest they are nearly a clone of the previous year. Tips to myself about letting the weeds geting the better of me in the onion bed and the hardship in dealing with them. Notes about trying to prevent the caterpillar getting loose in the cabbage patch and better vigilance on me good old friend the slug. I even see a note about using cheap composts in hanging baskets  preventing a good floral display. Again fell into that trap again this year cos I ran out of the good stuff when I came to do the baskets and there was a bag of the cheap stuff hanging around and I used that. I see a long list of flowers to try out as I noticed them on some-ones site but the list gets longer.

But my favourite notes in my journals is my plans for the coming year to make life easier for myself. Some of them make me laugh as I would need to take about a years holiday, rob two or three banks to fund them and hire a few men to help with the tasks. Some I have considered doing, some I made moves at, some I have done and some I add to the following years list.

But all being said, I will once again write my journal for the year, give tips to myself for the year ahead and make plans for the greatest garden to be ever seen on earth, and probaly once again I will fail to take my own advice. But this I do know, I give thanks I can do it, I laugh at my failures and act like I won a gold medal in the olympics when something flowers, and every year I look forward to the greatest madness ever, a little past-time called gardening   

happy and contented

A basket of healthy goodies

Happy was the gardener who had this for his dinner. Had to loosen the belt an extra notch when I finished.

happier still

happier still

managed to grow these as well. They also for a while would not grow for me.

Happiness is

perfect

Finally growing carrotts. I have struggled with this simple veg but now SUCCESS

free Therapy

Sometimes when the day does not go right, the humour is not good and the world becomes my enemy I retreat to the garden. At the start of the year it was great to be alone with my thoughts in the greenhose sowing seeds. later in the year it was great to get engrossed in the digging and the planting. Even the weeding becomes beneficial and allows time to think and collect our thought and make plans for the future. However tonite was the icing on the cake.

While watering the hanging baskets I sprayed water on the raised flowerbed and the scent that raised up from the nightstock and sweetpea was unbelievable. it was overpowering. sat there for an hour just doing nothing, totally overwhelmed with the aroma. Is-nt amazing I spent weeks building the flowerbed, weeks sowing it and today really was the first day I appreciated it. Absolutely brilliant, the batteries are recharged for another day