themagnoliatreeblog

It’s been a long time since I blogged anything. Probably with good reason. Illness was the first to slow me down, so I was totally unorganised for the start of the sowing season, more unorganised than usual that is. The weather wasn’t good but in spite of that, I had been considering ways of making life easier from the gardening point of view.

To start with, I overdid sowing cucumbers and courgettes. If I see seeds I like the look of, I must have them and when they are seeds, there is room for them. I was fast outgrowing any space I had and since at that time, it was a nice warm spring at least for a few days, I put the courgettes outdoors just a bit earlier than normal. They were growing well, the little minarette apple trees were covered in blossom. Then the late frost of sub-zero temperatures hit us. I lost so much, the leaves and blossoms on the apple trees disappeared and the courgette more or less froze to death.

Covid-19 had hit, and people were isolating. Fortunately by this time, the garden was showing signs of being in recovery mode. There was no hope of the fruit trees producing anything but the courgettes, what was left of them started growing again. I was also thinking about raised beds as a serious option, instead of working with containers which were getting too heavy for me to move around much.

I really felt so disorganised and disinterested, there was so much to do and I was getting nowhere, but at least I had tomatoes to deal with. Other plants needed new homes and normally I just advertise them on our local Facebook page for potential recipients to collect them. Being in isolation meant we could have little contact with anyone else, so my solution to that was to put up a Share Shelf in the front garden. I put my excess plants on it and anyone could collect or add to it. I was amazed at the interest. I was left donations (which I put into our local COVID support fund) and sometimes a little gift. One little girl, who had taken one of the plants, left me a painted stone, together with a thank you note and a photo of her plant collection.

Even in the midst of dark days, there was always something to make you smile.