The Potting Shed - Part 2

[Blueberry]

I had some help finishing making a herb bed on Monday. It's quite shallow so not ideal but that's where LL said I could put my herbs. He plainly doesn't want me digging up lawn to make myself a proper new deeper bed. While my help was there, we went to the local DIY/garden centre and got a bunch of bags of soil, more than I could ever carry on the cargo bike in one go, plus 2 fairly small plastic raised beds. I know people make their own out of wood, but forget that, it would probably take me about 2-3 years to get round to that, or quite likely never get round to it. My help also removed my flowering plants from part of a bed that's in part of the garden that's in the process of being sold and will be a building site at the latest next spring, but maybe even this fall. I really needed help with that because I can't yet dig on account of my ankle which is still healing. Most of those flowers are now in my herb bed or in a mini-bed just beside it.

It's now Thursday and I've been doing more gardening on my own both today and yesterday. Actually apart from the necessary watering of newly planted or re-planted herbs and flowers, housework would have been much more important, but I prefer gardening. Must have been last week or so, I discovered a mini-plantation of wild strawberries on the property of the empty building next door and I've been picking and eating them, as well as the wild strawberries on this property. Nobody else uses them. Today I also picked some raspberries, since they're beginning to ripen. They're basically wild as well. They're mostly in the part of the property that is in the process of being sold and will be a building site. I like having berries to pick - good for my inner (hunter/)gatherer. I've done quite a bit of work in communal parts of the garden, mostly small jobs which LL tends not to notice and/or he notices only what I haven't done. Such is life.

My newly planted/re-planted herbs and flowers are doing well, which was not a given. Moving them in the middle of a heatwave is not the best time, but that's when I had arranged with my help to do so. Actually a self-employed guy who can help with handyman stuff, and did so for me after my move, as well as gardening plus some other stuff I fortunately don't need help with (yet). Anyway, filling watering cans and lugging them over has paid off. And LL had better be happy that that part of the garden looks much better now! I'm certainly happy, it was worth finally paying somebody to complete it. There are still some free spots including in most of the raised beds, where I can plant/sow more flowers or herbs or maybe even one of the quick-growing lettuces whose leaves you keep harvesting rather than the whole plant. It's probably not too late in the growing season yet.

[Hope67]

I enjoyed reading about your gardening stuff, Blueberry.  Having some home-grown herbs sounds really nice.

[Blueberry]

Thank you Hope    

I do like having some of my own herbs for tea or to add to salads. Mint I even chew on raw in the garden.

I did some more gardening today while my washing machine was running. Mostly I was doing communal stuff / stuff for LL. Weeding, dead-heading roses etc. The roses do look better, so does the driveway.

[sanmagic7]

i love hearing about you in the garden, blueberry.  so wish i could join you, but i don't have a place where i live now.  maybe next year i can get some container tomatoes going, we'll see, but altho i had that where i'd lived before, it's not quite the same as just getting into the earth.  i've had real gardens before, and they're the best for grounding me.  such a good feeling.   

[Blueberry]

Today I also picked some raspberries, since they're beginning to ripen. They're basically wild as well. They're mostly in the part of the property that is in the process of being sold and will be a building site. I like having berries to pick - good for my inner (hunter/)gatherer.

Interesting for me to read my posts on gardening from last year.
The raspberry harvest was much better this year.

The property wasn't sold last year after all, the buyer went bankrupt   It may seem 'not nice' to be glad a property developer went bankrupt, but I was very glad of that stretch of garden/yard this year plus next-door building sites are not fun. The building next door is big, so it will become a big, long, noisy, dirty, busy building site.

A shame I got rid of my blackcurrant bush and my redcurrant bushes though. I gave them away last year rather than see them bulldozed.

My newly planted/re-planted herbs and flowers are doing well, which was not a given. Moving them in the middle of a heatwave is not the best time,

Most of them have done well. A few didn't survive the winter, although the same type of plant did in my old garden before I moved. The old sandbox is very shallow and the base of it is plastic with stones on top. I think that's not good for insulation in winter and I have to water a lot more often than if it were a normal bed, with plain old ground underneath. Live and learn.

I still enjoy puttering about in my bits of the garden, as well as doing communal garden work and/or for LL.

[Blueberry]

This is from Part 1, in 2017, one of my posts:
I didn't actually plant my ground elder on Sept. 24th, so it didn't survive needless to say. But I planted more shoots of it yesterday. Now to see if it continues to grow like the proverbial weed inside too!

It doesn't survive inside, I do remember that from 2017.
Nor did it survive long this year when I planted it outside in a big pot, although I read online somewhere that other people had had success growing it in a fairly deep pot. Oh well, it was worth trying.