Amateur gardening, or making it up as I go along

Its been a while, and inevitably my project 365 attempt died a death. I might resurrect it at some point, when I'm doing a bit more. My depression came back with a vengeance about a month or so ago and sapped all motivation for a while, in spite of the tablets. I'm a bit more settled again but who knows when it's going to rear its head once more.

However, I have a few little projects on the go to keep me active at the moment. The biggest one is my Grandad's garden. Mum and I smothered one of the veg patches in weed killer a little while back and have started on clearing the patch. It's still going to take a lot of work, but we should be able to start planting at least part of it soon. If we have a sunny day this week I will see about spraying the other veg patch so that it doesn't seed and send weeds all over what we've been clearing. Clearance of the second patch can wait until next year!

I spent most of the weekend disturbing woodlice and ants nests in the garden. Hard work and my legs are feeling quite stiff still today. Back hasn't been too bad though. On Saturday I had a go at the border in the front garden, weeding it and sowing some flower seeds. Hopefully there might be some evidence of these in about three weeks. I also had a go at some of the larger plants that were actually growing through the tarmac path - that thing is knackered. I really need to have a good go at the moss coverage too. Still, it's looking that little bit better.

Yesterday's job was to clear out the greenhouse. Removing the dead plants and weeds wasn't too much of a problem, although turning and breaking up the soil was. It's so dry! Also, the two grow bags that used to hold tomatoes turned out to contain two ants nests, as I discovered after my uncle had turned them out for me to dig in the compost. I'm going to have to get some ant powder or something, I do not want to have to deal with flying ants in there. I also went around the concrete slabs of the patio and pathways to remove the grass that was growing through the cracks. There are still a few to finish but it looks better. My cousin did the major edging on Saturday which was a vast improvement.

In accordance with one British bank holiday tradition, Mum and I went off to a large garden centre today to pick up some bits and pieces for the greenhouse. Another couple of grow bags, five tomato plants, a couple of peppers, a cucumber and some herbs. I'm thinking we can also plant lettuce and rocket direct in the soil - the last time lettuce was planted in the garden everything else managed to eat it before we did so the greenhouse is probably the better option. Mum also got a three sets of 20 flowers (on an offer) for use on the family's graves which need some clearing and also for the borders in the garden since we have so many.

We also went for three types of cabbage which we will be able to start planting out soon. First will mean a rummage through the garage to dig out some scaffolding boards to edge the veg patch and define the path again. It's amazing the amount of stuff Grandad has hoarded. I raided a stack of unused bricks to extend the rough path in the greenhouse for example - I have no idea why he has those, but they've been there for years. It was a large scale game of Jenga since I had to reach across a table of junk and the old petrol mower to reach them and hope I could remove the three bricks I needed without knocking the whole lot over.

In spite of the stiffness, it was a lovely way to spend a sunny weekend. And there's always something else to do; if I hadn't felt physically tired and utterly filthy after doing the greenhouse and paths I could have happily carried on pottering around for hours yesterday. Today's weather was a bit crap though. Still, now the greenhouse is being brought back into use it doesn't matter too much if it's raining out - I've got potting on and planting to do in the dry!