It's Labour Day and traditional tomato and summer veges planting time.
As I've already planted my toms and got no other raised beds I didn't plant any summer veges, even though I've got pumpkin seeds ready to scatter. My sunflowers got decapitated and their heads are in a brown paper bag to collect all the seeds. Crocus got dumped into the back garden next to the comfrey which survived chicken predation thanks to its tenacious roots, and then I noticed the other comfrey was springing back to life in the corner poppy bed (with no poppies, sigh. I should stop calling it that). Instead I've got pink freesias, orange calendula and exotic pink looking anemones.
I then filled the empty pots with chives, dusty miller, kalanchoe, potted up my 'stairway to heaven' and mulched my hanging basket with moss and seaweed.
I've noticed more flowers coming up including red clover. Just suddenly overnight it sprang up, which was a surprise. Indigo lobelias are also flowering. And I've picked my first vase of sweet peas.
Phacelia is doing well. My border is a haze of purples. I think the next thing would be do make another bed nearby or extend it out, although I'm not sure how exactly to go about doing it. I could plant the whole side of the house up as one big border. I mean really, why bother having a narrow strip of lawn there?
It was a bit cool today with some wind and I didn't really fancy going to the shops on Labour Day as then you feel thats a bit of a cheat, those retailers working round the clock and not even giving their employees the day off. I mean the library is closed, but the shops are open. What does that mean? And then you notice offices are closed, but they aren't the ones that do labour exactly. I would characterise labour as hard work and heavy lifting, but I once had an office job where I didn't need to lift a thing, just tap at a keyboard and we were not even allowed to lift our bums off the office chairs as we were chained to the desk. Well, not chained, but if we went over our 10 minute break the boss then started glaring at you because your supervisor tattled behind your back and then there's no chance of a 2 cents pay rise.
That is why gardening is a lot more fun and after your hard work you can take a break that lasts longer than 10 measly minutes. And it's not far to walk. So happy Labour Day all you hard workers in the garden. :-) Your reward is inheriting the promised land of milk and honey.
