Saga

I’m missing out many parts of the saga because I’d need a second volume otherwise.

Bucket

My baby sunflowers were overdue being thinned out. The instructions said to keep the strongest three in the bucket and to plant the rest outside. I’d persuaded Mr Pandammonium to clear the strip between the patio and the wall. It was covered in gravel; when I dug down, I found plastic sheeting. Scuppered.

Just popping out

I decided I’d put the extra baby sunflowers in pots instead. I’d need to go and buy some pots and some muck. And a bigger watering can – but not too big. I thought I’d support a local business and pop out to the local garden centre.

Ideally, I’d have got ceramic pots, but I needed a lot, and they’re expensive, so I got plastic ones. The watering cans were too big and looked childish. The muck was not peat free.

Please, let me go

The man gave me quite the diatribe about peat-free compost versus ‘normal’ compost: people always want it now, it’s a fad, it’s expensive – £10 for an unspecified quantity – I don’t know how much he was selling his compost for – it’s hard to get hold of, even if he could get hold of some, what would he do with all this (he waved his arm at the piles and piles of non-peat-free compost at this point), suppliers, I’d have to look online …

Really?

I escaped eventually, and searched B&Q’s website for peat-free compost. They had loads of it at £7 for 50 litres – the same price as their non-peat-free compost. That seemed reasonable to me, so I drove to Wisbech.

Things in trolleys

In B&Q, I found the bags of muck – even the organic peat-free compost was £7 for 50 litres – and a watering can of the sort of size I wanted. I also found some herbs, a lavender plant, a clothes airer that will have to go back, plant pots made of bamboo and rice that will turn to compost in five years’ time, and a machete. I don’t think Mr Pandammonium realises I did actually buy the machete.

Prep

Fifty litres of muck is really heavy. I’d been able to slide it into the trolley from its pile, the checkout lady used a portable scanner to scan it in the trolley, and I managed to heave it out of the trolley and into the car boot. But I wasn’t sure about getting it down the bottom of the garden.

I remembered Monty Don carts things about his garden in a wheelbarrow. So I got out my wheelbarrow and hoicked the bag of muck into it. Then I put some of the other stuff away, I put some of it in the wheelbarrow, I hid some of it in plain sight and I put other stuff I thought I’d need in the wheelbarrow; I took the wheelbarrow and its contents to the patio.

Planting

I’d bought one of those pots with openings up the side. Apparently, you’re supposed to plant strawberries in them, but I thought herbs would be nice.

I put basil, curly parsley and oregano in the bottom three openings, and thyme, rosemary and sage in the top three openings. In the very top, I put lemon balm.

Potting on

I spent a good couple of hours filling seven 7” pots and five 5” bamboo pots with stones for drainage, compost, seedlings (and whatever the stage after seedlings is) and water.

Unpeaceful peace lily

After I’d finished with the sunflowers, I made an attack on my peace lily.

The peace lily’s leaves have been yellowing and dying. I don’t know if I’m underwatering it, overwatering it or something else. It might be because it’s terribly potbound. I’d noticed some spare 5” pots in the back porch, so I took them and the peace lily outside.

The plant looked like it would easily break up into several smaller plants, but looks can be deceiving. I had to take scissors to it and cut it open. Turns out there’s some sort of solid thing where all the stems and roots come from. Well, that solid thing is white on the inside and is now in four pieces in four different pots. I hope I haven’t killed it.

Hurry up!

By the time I’d cleared everything up, it was time I was starting to get ready for Pilates. I didn’t have time to take a photo of my plants. I just got to Pilates on time.

We did some intense core work and the evil bridges so that we could slow the pace down at the end and do some stretches. We don’t like the core. We do like the stretches.

Photos

After tea, I took some photos of the plants on the patio in the dark. I hope they survive the great outdoors!