Winter Garden…

It’s July.

The shortest day of the year has been and gone. We are now on the way up to more light and warmth and somewhere, at the end of the tunnel, is spring. I’m pretty sure we are yet to have our coldest day this winter, but the Eden Seeds catalogue turned up late last week so I am officially making plans for spring, regardless.

I’ve not totally neglected the garden this winter though. I took the advice of a wonderful friend who suggested that getting outside into the garden whenever I could might help with my winter SADs. She was right. I’ve not spent heaps of time in the garden, I don’t do rain or extreme cold, but there have been enough sunny days for me to get out and muck about.

We planted a handful of winter crops – peas, broccoli and cauliflower. Plus there has been volunteer spinach come up as well as the spring onion seeds that I sprinkled about in hope way back in the autumn.

Mostly I’ve just been pottering…. I’ve cut back the huge mint patch and a few other unruly plants, because hacking at things is really good for the grumps! I’ve begun to go through the strawberry patch, getting rid of the dead leaves and looking for viable runners that might give us a new plant next season, despite the plants being well past their suggested expiry date. I’ve dug around a bit here and there, mulching and weeding and just dreaming up what might go where when the sun finally comes back.

Every year I dream of starting my seeds off extra early. I dream of getting some things in the ground as early as September and working out some way to protect them from our killer late frosts. I never quite manage it but every year I get one or two things in a little earlier and I learn a little more about working with our strange climate…

Sometimes I feel like such an old fuddy duddy ‘pottering in the garden’ like an old woman. But it is good for my soul. Getting my hands dirty, dreaming a little and growing food for my family is something that borders on magical for me at the moment…

So here’s to the coming of spring and embracing the old lady in myself for yet another year!