Pools of light to bathe in.

Introduction

With the arrival of June, Summer decided to put in an apperance. Up until this point there have been chilly days. A spell of prolonged dry weather with no rain since the end of April has meant spending time setting out trays for the plants. Watering takes up a lot of time during this part of the year. An eye needs to be kept on those green wonders. Even so, we’ve lost quite a number to the harsh cold of winter and the prolonged dryness we now so often get in the summer months. It has rained in the past few days which is much needed. It waters things in a way which I can never achieve however much I try. But the surrounding ground still has deep welts which swallow all the water. They seem bottomless. Do they go right to the centre of the earth?

The dryness and with it the accompanying heat stopped garden activities. When it comes to setting posts. There’s a fine line between the ground being to wet or to dry. To wet, the concrete doesn’t set, to dry and the water gets sucked out faster than you can say “where did that go?”. The cement then remains powdery and doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, which again is set.

Given the heat and dryness plus the trees giving the garden welcome shade. We started to put together and fix trellis. We’ve have had to wait for more brackets and fixings to arrive but this process will be the subject of the next film.

Setting out

The footage below goes through the second phase of the garden development. It involves the process of setting out what we’re trying to create. It may be rudimentary but we are working with the tools we have to hand. As this is our own garden we’re a little more relaxed with being precise. As long as things are level and line up within a few centimeters or so this will work out reasonably well.

I won’t go into to much of a written explanation as I’m hoping the video does this for me. In it you’ll see the back fence has been repaired and the hit and miss fencing above it is complete. Now we move onto setting out the enclosed area and installing posts. There is also a suprise appearance or debut, which wasn’t without trepidation. This is for a host of reasons which will probably become more apparent as time moves on.

Conclusion

Beyond putting together this video and other commitments we’ve been spending time sorting out a whole host of things in the field where our plants are kept. It has become decidedly shaggy with triffids of docs, sow thistles, umbellifers and Yorkshire fog grass. The latter of which is a real problem. It seeds itself in everything and before you can blink it’s taken over the entire world. Well…our part of it. There never seems to be enough hours in the day at this time of year As we try to clear areas and keep the exuberant growth to a dull roar. I’ve been clearing a raised bed created here, the intention is to plant some of our plants so they become stock plants. This is so they can grow and when appropriate be split and divided creating new plants. These can then be put into gardens or sold.

I hope you enjoy the video and are able to see things progressing. It is not the quickest of processes but it’s not a race for us. It has to fit in around our existing life. It’s full of frustrations, setbacks and limitations but we have to learn to roll with it. It’s about the journey of creating something for ourselves and I’m glad to have you tagging along.