What time is it?

Garden time

Upon waking I am greeted by a blue grey sky, as the night recedes and the day begins. It is 7.15/8.15 am, Sunday, daylight savings time. We have fallen back to Autumn. I thought I would sleep in, using my extra hour to snuggle deep into my bed but instead I am bright eyed awake, reading emails that I didn’t during the week, quietly playing catch up. Pup Pup announces he too is awake and that in his mind it is most definitely 8.15 not 7.15 and the day should have started. He is hungry and needs to go outside. We move to the kitchen, kettle on, door opened, dog outside. I open the curtains to reveal a hint of the day. I might as well go garden I think and plans for the day start to take form.

And I do garden. I spend a couple of hours weeding, pulling out, planting, tidying in the garden. It was marvelous. I returned to the flower bed I worked on a week or so ago. Tiny seedlings are sprouting in the disturbed soil where I had worked (note to self more pea straw is needed) and while I know I needed to revisit that part of the flower bed I wanted to tackle the other half. Time, as always, flew as I lost myself in the task of removing lavenders that had done their best in a space that they clearly did no enjoy being and some thymes that have become too bossy. I left, what I hope will become a border of thyme on the path side that leads to the house. I love the idea of walking past it in the height of summer, bees humming away as it flowers. It is a good bee friendly ground cover but it does need to be managed.

There are roses in this bed and from my knowledge of the garden they have been there a while. They are old roses, kinda stubborn, to have made it here this long and I think they deserve to be the central feature of the garden. I intend to add perennials that will flower either as a look at me when the roses are dormant or will form a nice background when they aren’t. I also want to curve the bed, extending out to the lawn which is partly why I have been so determined to clean up the bed. I need to see what it looks like stripped back. There are many bulbs, too many. I had did a clear out last season but they are back. There are many Snowdrops which I love but they are taking up so much space and I am wanting things which take up space to be offering more for the insect life in the garden. A sprinkle of snowdrops is fine. I also have a lot iris again I removed a lot but I did leave some that have formed a nice forest of stems that I think will add colour when the roses are dormant.

Once cleared and tidied I have that delicious feeling of achieving something. There is still more to do. I have marked the time we have off at Easter as a chance to spend so much time, ideally too much time, in the garden. I find some pots and plant up my sweet peas and sprinkle them in the bed. I want to give them a chance to be a feature of the bed, a waft of scent as you walk along the path. The pots are placed in the bed and I know in the new season of growth the pots will be quickly hidden by surrounding plants. I am such a nervous sweet pea grower I hope my plan works. I head indoors, my work done, a small smile on my face, more from spending time in the garden rather than the tick off the to do list. I feel better than I have in weeks. I feel like myself. As I walk in the house I see a trail of muddy paw prints on our carpet that is so not practical for dogs. As I make my tea I see it is 11.45 and then realise is it actually 10.45 the time has not changed on the clock to accommodate our Autumn schedule. I think to myself that these things would have bothered me a few hours ago but time in my place of joy means they don’t bother me now.