June : Showery Day

Today, after several days of rain and wind we felt confident enough about the weather to get out and garden.

Up and out after locating gardening clothes, and set up for the morning by breakfasting on yoghurt and stewed plums. G pushed the mower around the sodden paths. It was very hard work as the grass had grown thick and tufted. Then he cut back the willow boughs that were drooping and weakened by too fast growth in wet weather.

I did several hours weeding – an easy task with such damp soil. Just pulling out the obvious weeds filled a tonne bag. The foxgloves were pretty much finished, and keeled over at odd angles. There was plenty of bindweed, rampant mint and numerous clumps of fresh green nettles.

A sudden sharp storm sent us both running about in all directions. With the best will in the world, tools and equipment get spread out during a morning’s gardening. G put the mower in the Dome as it was raining too hard to waste time pushing it to the shed. I grabbed tools, pots and compost and dashed backwards and forwards to the shed, grabbing new plants I’d dumped in various places with the intention of planting them later.

All was safely gathered in. We’d each got marooned in the Polytunnel, shed and Dome while making dashes for the next shelter. The huge drops of torrential rain had soaked us completely by the time we got indoors.

Having decided that the rain was set in, we got cleaned up and changed into dry clothes. By 3.00pm the wind had got up, but it was quite dry and bright. G went out and got on where he left off. I checked the newly planted Pelargoniums and was pleased to see the rain had watered them in, and not smashed them up as I feared.

It was good gardening weather, but I didn’t feel like getting changed and muddy again, so made the decision to stay indoors.
Gardening isn’t about what you ought to do.