Day 2: March 26th 2020

Oh yes. Now I remember.

Excuse No 5.

Wow. Gardening is darned expensive. I do remember an old Alexei Sayle gag about how Columbian drug dealers were abandoning their business to run garden centres instead. Turns out he wasn't entirely joking. It is very easy to spend £20, £30, £50 at a garden centre and have virtually nothing to show for it other than two or three tiny plants that just look lonely when you plant them. I also remember that when I first moved here a lot of people promised me cuttings but then (I assume) forgot to deliver, and I'm not very good at asking for free stuff.

I went online last night to see if I could order a few plants to keep my enthusiasm up. I realise plants may come under the category of "nice things" which Rebecca Long-Bailey says we should not be ordering at the moment. But no one's actually said they're a health risk, so here's hoping. And I won't be doing much of it, at those prices. I realise now this is another reason why I've given up in the past.

Other garden problems

We have a pond, which is apparently one of the best things you can do for wildlife. No gold star for me, though, because it's pretty green and scummy (see below - bleagh). When we put the pond in (a long time ago) I hoped for a sort of boggy area around it, but that doesn't seem to have worked as it just gets dried out.

It does, however, have wildlife. We have two goodly sized clumps of frogspawn and when I was trying to get rid of this green stuff I found this little chap.

(Bit hard to spot, but it's a newt).

Slope

I may have mentioned it's on a slope. It's been divided into what are grandly referred to as "terraces" but in fact they're just very small patches of either grass or soil with a few steps running up the middle. If I was starting from scratch I would not have designed it this way, but in the absence of a digger and a workforce, I'm stuck with it. I need to find a way to somehow make this aesthetically pleasing. But how?

Stop moaning, start doing

Anyway: I did some actual digging today. See newly-turned patch of soil and freshly-dug border. It was even quite warm out there.

Day 2: What I've learned

The soil is different depending which part of the garden you're in. Some of it is quite crumbly and pleasant. It gets thicker, stickier and claggier (good Northumbrian word) the further up the garden you go. Soil actually smells quite pleasant.

You're never too far from a worm. But I have stopped "eek"-ing, as I understand the little slimers are good for the soil.

We have lots of birds in the garden and trust me, they're well-fed. But the soil is covered in thousands and thousands of little twigs. You'd have thought the birds might've made some use of these in their annual house-building schemes, but this seems to be a myth.

I was unpleasantly surprised to find a small dug out pit in the garden which appears to be for the deposit of cat poo. I didn't agree to this and I am pretty sure it's not all from my dainty little feline. Need to find some wildlife-friendly, organic way to deter the visitors. Suggestions welcome.