EVERYBODIES GARDENING

We were an industrious set in our part of the village today,we all spent the day in our gardens,and of course some time was spent chatting in neighbourly fashion over garden gates and fences, and in one instance from the branches of a tree.

Our new neighbours,determined to reclaim their pretty garden from over a years neglect worked hard all through the day removing weeds and planting young annuals to enliven the tired borders. The young lady is soon to have a child and she looked particularly lovely sitting among the spring flowers, a symbol of new life.

My other neighbour was working in his garden dealing with a heavy overgrowth of wild clematis whose growth is swamping some young trees, we chatted over the fence at the bottom of the orchard,swapping stories of massive slugs,huge spiders and the family of foxes who live in the orchard .

From another garden the clatter of a mower could be heard along with an occasional curse when the blades became chocked on the long grass. This is a problem we all have as due to last years atrocious weather many lawns and pathways were not given their final cut in October,some had not been cut since August.

By mid afternoon the air was filled with the lovely smell of cut grass and green things growing, by six the air was full of the acrid stench of petrol and barbecued meat of indeterminate species!

We all made the most of the sunshine and the Bank Holiday and every garden along the lane looks better for the days work. A little further down the lane the owners of the allotments had also been hard at work, we really are a very horticultural society.

I have at last sowed my runner beans and carrots as well as some salad varieties and a few flowers,I have many more to sew and the kitchen garden beds are in need of digging,badly in need as the Autumn digging was another victim of torrential rain, needless to say the weeds have made free!

I cannot say if I shall do any gardening tomorrow, the last couple of days have taken their toll and I am now in a good deal of pain,I have a badly swollen left ankle and my right knee resembles a football,my back feels as if it will never be straight again and my left hip keeps on giving way in a most alarming fashion.

If I cannot garden I shall spend the day catching up with neglected correspondence, I am to happy with the way the gardens look now to regret the work which has caused the discomfort and some of the seeds sowed only on Saturday are through already, cause indeed for celebration.

My son has put his foot down and told me that tomorrow must take things easy....of else!

He is right ,of course but the rest of the strawberry patch needs weeding

the salad beds need digging as do the winter vegetable beds,not to mention the summer vegetable bed. The wine berry needs tying in and so do the loganberries,the raspberries need cutting back....the list is endless.

Pa said to me on my birthday,”The things that did not get done had to be left because of all the things you did today.” I think that perhaps I shall take notice and not beat myself up any more, may be tomorrow I shall sit in the garden with my lap top and write my letters in the open air.......chill,as Pa says.