Thursday, August 17, 2017

Hindsight and Gardening.

Have you ever started something and later wished you hadn't?
 It doesn't happen to me very often but this week I realised that several years ago we purchased a paper shredder to turn our used accounts and financial documents into shredded paper that could be used as mulch. It turns out unless one is prepared to do a few each day( fat chance ) the machine is far too slow ; overheats and will not tolerate staples so they have to be removed first. I think an industrial sized one was what we needed.
   The second thing that I feel has been a waste of my time is my worm farm. Yes I get containers of worm wee that do not appear to make plants grow better than other things. After several years I am still only using the second tray. Where is all that lovely worm caste / soil it was going to produce. Maybe I am doing something wrong....there are lots of healthy worms so it can't be too bad a place to live and breed.
 The 3rd thing we bought that was not fit for purpose was a juicer. Enough said I donated it to the charity shop. Again we needed something with grunt ( we have one now )


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 On a brighter note I have been in the garden! I have never had so little ready to use. But it has been a very wet Winter.
 My 6 dwarf Broad beans are flowering nicely so I hope I get a crop. Years ago we grew regular sized ones that grew to 7 foot tall and were difficult to pick and blew their fence over in the wind. These wee ones get to 80 cms high ( they are already ).
 When I got up this morning I announced in a loud voice ( so I had a witness )  that if the sun appeared today I would prepare the herb garden for a second bed of strawberry plants. ( mainly so there are plenty for Grandson to find to pick in the Summer ) 
 Sure enough straight after lunch the sun appeared.
 Two and a half hours later it looked like this!
 Several slugs and 8 fat snails found the bottom of my gumboot. I left them on the grass for an observant thrush to find and eat. Some were hiding under the overhanging thyme in the big pot.
 Tomorrow I will purchase a few new strawberry plants. 5 have grown for free in the chip path and I can transplant those too.
 It is now raining again! Glad I grabbed my chance in the dry.


2 comments:

Deb said...

Ali, you describing your things that you know wonder why you bought made me laugh out loud as I said something so similar the other day when I was found a coffee maker in the back of the cupboard and said to Bill, why on earth did we ever buy this, we never used it and it was useless. Our accounts etc that need shredding I have taken in too work of late and put them in the big shredder bin, so much easier than doing the rip into small pieces etc and soak scenario for the garden.
Your herb / strawberry garden is so lovely and I am sure will reap big rewards for you and your grandchildren in the summer.

A Casa Madeira said...

Lindas as imagens.
Adorei conhecer.
janicce./Brasil/RS