DH has been "doing the gardening" solo so far this year. He's been trying to get out when the weather breaks to plant out seedlings, mow, and do other maintenance jobs.
Today was lovely. DH had to pop to the garden centre, so I popped out to mow the grass. The Girls get very excited at mowing time, and love to follow the mower. Or get in front of the mower. We move their netting while we mow, and the moment there is a gap Tilda (yes, Tilda, our disabled chicken) rushes through it (or under it) and skips round the rest of the garden. How we chuckle!
I ws clearing some weeds from the base of some blackcurant bushes, and I realised that the floor of the fruit cage was choked with weeds. We had had to stop the Girls getting in there, as they had started to eat the fruit buds, and the weeds have been gaining ground in the damp/warm/damp weather. So I started excavating them.
Several hours later, the green bin was half full, and the fruit cage looked better. Now it just looks unkempt and a bit weedy, rather than completely unloved and calling for a machete.
I also hacked down, and then manually uprooted, my last two gooseberry bushes. They were mildewed, again. Last year (and the year before) I had had enough and had decided to pull them out. Each time, couldn't do it. Instead, I did some proper pruning (to make a goblet shape) at the proper time, and gave them another chance. And another. Each year, I had to squash past them go get to the in-cage blackcurrants.Each year they spiked me mercilessly, as I tried to pick the other soft fruit.
They've gone now.
I won't get any more, not even the mildew-resistant ones. These were a particular vaiety of gooseberry that tasted (when not mikdewed) like really juicy white grapes. Not like gooseberries at all.
I'm back in the house for a moment as one of them gave me a parting stab in the finger (through my gloves) with a particularly large thorn. I don't blame it, I was pulling it out by the roots at the time and I'd get a bit prickly I think.
Today was lovely. DH had to pop to the garden centre, so I popped out to mow the grass. The Girls get very excited at mowing time, and love to follow the mower. Or get in front of the mower. We move their netting while we mow, and the moment there is a gap Tilda (yes, Tilda, our disabled chicken) rushes through it (or under it) and skips round the rest of the garden. How we chuckle!
I ws clearing some weeds from the base of some blackcurant bushes, and I realised that the floor of the fruit cage was choked with weeds. We had had to stop the Girls getting in there, as they had started to eat the fruit buds, and the weeds have been gaining ground in the damp/warm/damp weather. So I started excavating them.
Several hours later, the green bin was half full, and the fruit cage looked better. Now it just looks unkempt and a bit weedy, rather than completely unloved and calling for a machete.
I also hacked down, and then manually uprooted, my last two gooseberry bushes. They were mildewed, again. Last year (and the year before) I had had enough and had decided to pull them out. Each time, couldn't do it. Instead, I did some proper pruning (to make a goblet shape) at the proper time, and gave them another chance. And another. Each year, I had to squash past them go get to the in-cage blackcurrants.Each year they spiked me mercilessly, as I tried to pick the other soft fruit.
They've gone now.
I won't get any more, not even the mildew-resistant ones. These were a particular vaiety of gooseberry that tasted (when not mikdewed) like really juicy white grapes. Not like gooseberries at all.
I'm back in the house for a moment as one of them gave me a parting stab in the finger (through my gloves) with a particularly large thorn. I don't blame it, I was pulling it out by the roots at the time and I'd get a bit prickly I think.
