The days of the week

where we had our first frost.

It’s Monday afternoon on a long weekend. We are home, nestled inside, the weather outside isn’t encouraging one to venture out. It rained most of yesterday and it is slowly clearing today. Slow is the word of the day. We had a lunch with family and friends. It start at 12.30 and ended at 4pm. It was a delicious feast of conversation and cuisine, flashing past in a moment which is a sign of a good time. We are full of both food and companionship. Dinner is skipped as the night draws in and we both feel it. Content and happy but also a slight itch of wanting to do something physical but acknowledging that the confines of the season prevent it. The days at the moment are to short to do a lot of things and if you do have the time when you can the weather often prevents your best made plans. I realise that despite my best wishes, winter is a time of waiting, of not doing much, of just staying put. Thank goodness for the good people in our life and the simple joy of a good meal. It all helps past the time on these cold winter days.

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Tuesday held more promise than Sunday and Monday. The morning was crisp and fresh and hinted a frost. We are in June, a month firmly ensconced in winter. I am counting the days to the shortest day, when light will start to return and second by second my days will start to stretch into something longer and warmer. The cold and clear morning meant a day of sun and once I finished work I head to the garden to work the flower beds around the beehive. I planted many things last season and left it to it’s own devices, largely because it is often tricky to keep the bed tidy when you are weeding in the flight path of a hive. As I reflect on the season past I decide that the little treasures I planted maybe need to be moved so I can appreciate them more and I should embrace more fully the mass planting which is a foundation of a pollinator friendly garden. So with this in mind I decide since they have done so well in this space and grow fast that I will create a forest of Nepeta (catnip), a great bee friendly plant. There are enough varieties to provide interest and there will be a few things I shall leave behind that had established themselves in this bed such as the delphiniums and foxgloves adding some scabiosa in the spring. They can interweave themselves amongst the nepeta. So while the sun still holds I clean the bed, add pea straw and digging up and splitting the geranium that have got lost in the bed. I have some roses I shall move to another part of the garden where they too won’t get lost. When I finish up and head inside I for a brief minute daydream of warmer days and wafts of nepeta. I am sure my bees will appreciate it too.

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It’s Wednesday and I tell myself to stop but I sneak in one more seed order. A few seeds from Susie Ripley’s collaboration with Violet Faigan. Most I pot up and pop in the fridge as they require stratification, a cold snap to get them started. It provides amusement for myself when I open the door and see them lined up. I tell myself to wait until the shortest day to liberate them from their current home. The rest of my seedlings are scattered about the place. Big enough plants are nestled out by the beehive, a sunny yet sheltered spot. Those that are slightly younger are on tables in the spare room while new to start and just emerging seedlings are on the windowsill which gets a good dose of sun. As always I learn new things each year and thought I would share a few observations from this season seedling growing season.

1. I’ve realised it is really important to get good seedling mix, as in a good quality. I have usually by an organic top quality seedling mix and in a rush I brought what was available to me at the time. I noticed as I potted up my seedlings that the texture was not much and found that a number of the seeds are not as prosperous as others I started in the better quality seed mix. I’ve had a couple of seedlings I have re-potted into better quality seedling mix as I watch them struggle to get momentum.

2. I fail at this every year but labeling is so important. I tell myself I will remember what is what and of course I never do. I have finally ordered a marker pen for labels that will stay visible when the seedlings are outdoors.

3. Patience. I can be a bit of a quick as you can gardener and this year I have made an effort to be a bit more patient which it comes to waiting to prick out my seedlings. I was advised to wait until there are at least one set of true leaves and I have done my best to do this. Slowing down has definitely meant I have been much more successful with my seedlings.

4. Sowing in Autumn. It definitely is fast becoming my favourite time to sow seeds. I know we have had a super warm autumn which has been of benefit to starting seedlings but knowing I have seedlings growing already and that they should be nice strong plants come spring is a great feeling.

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Thursday and we wake to a cold and frosty start to the day. The garden is blanketed with white and while I sip my tea looking outside from the warmth of the house, I can almost feel the crack of the grass as you step on it. It is cold. The garden looks different. It kinda slumps into itself with a weird kind of crisp beauty to it. It is is the details that catch my eye. Frosted leaves reveal patterns previously unseen. The odd rose that still flowers, their colours are more vibrant. I notice the movement of birds as they hunt for something to eat. It is beautiful. I grab the camera to capture it all before it goes. By lunch time the garden has changed again, the frosty morning always means a vibrant sunny day and the noon winter sun while weaker than it’s summer version still brings much wanted warmth to the garden.