therapy
A moment when we saw the evening sun in the garden this last week! It's been raining on and off - mostly on for what seems like weeks now... so the other evening when I got in brain dead from staring at a computer all day, it was so therapeutic to get my hands in the earth and do a bit of repotting.
I like the fact that you can do lots of little short tasks in the garden that feel as if you are accomplishing something. I'd been looking everywhere for really plain simple cheap pots to put my sunflowers into, as the plan is to train them up one wall in the garden. Eventually I bought these black pots online for the magnificent cost of 84p each or something. It actually cost more in postage to send them. But weighing up the driving around looking for things, with the time factor - it was the simplest thing to do, and the pots arrived the day after I'd ordered - very efficiently!
here are 'the girls' all lined up!...
Another online purchase was by N. He noticed there were a lot of wasps, attracted to one particular hedge in the garden, but very close to the composter. He'd read about this device that you can hang in the garden that deters them. Wasps are (apparently) very territorial and they think this looks like a wasp's nest, and will not invade another wasp territory.
So he thought he would try it as an experiment. Needless to say, that evening the bush was full of wasps merrily buzzing around completely oblivious to the odd looking thing the humans had hung in the tree!
Looking forward to a mini-crop of tomatoes, courgettes, herbs and lettuce which are all underway... The other night we found a wild strawberry growing in the corner of the garden - which was just plump and ripe for picking. It tasted fresh and fragrant - a subtler taste than a supermarket strawberry, with plenty of water in it... no wonder after these rains!
It sounds as if you are really enjoying becoming a gardener. Our sunflowers this year are self sown presents from the birds, or maybe I should say bird sown as they dropped the seed from the bird table.
Posted by: carolyn | July 10, 2008 at 10:05 PM
great online purchases especially the wasp cocoon... was definately worth a try.
your garden looks lovely and lush.
those tiny wild strawberries will spread if you let them... they are so sweet arn't they? and they smell gorgeous. the girls love picking them.
great garden therapy!
g x
Posted by: ginny | July 11, 2008 at 07:56 PM
Yes - I noticed the 'waspinator' was featured in Country Living magazine this month. Our wasps obviously hadn't read that in 15 minutes it would clear a 12m radius... as they continued to buzz underneath it for the whole evening! I will look again later today, as it has been quieter - but the weather can affect them too, quieter when dull.
Caireen
Posted by: caireen | July 12, 2008 at 08:43 AM
We were told by a biologist to hang a paper bag in the tree. We did so at the start of spring and haven't had a wasp since ! We took a balloon, blew it up, stuck it in the bag and voila !!! We were skeptical, but it worked :D
Posted by: tpw | July 17, 2008 at 01:36 AM
We were told by a biologist to hang a paper bag in the tree. We did so at the start of spring and haven't had a wasp since ! We took a balloon, blew it up, stuck it in the bag and voila !!! We were skeptical, but it worked :D
Posted by: tpw | July 17, 2008 at 01:36 AM
What is that silver box? It looks like a portable raised bed? Am I right? Ingenius!
Posted by: Jen | July 26, 2008 at 02:48 AM