3 May 2023
It’s National Gardening week, and hasn’t it been lovely? The sunset was so beautiful on Monday that Rich and I sneaked out to spend a quiet half hour outside after supper…
We walked down to my little Wendy house, Bwythyn Bach. It’s magical at the moment, with the white hawthorn and white tulips in full flow. Although, it must be said, Rich isn’t much on gardening – he’s more of a tractor/goat/sheep farmer bloke – so I did well to lure him down to the bottom of the garden with me! He always says, “I work outside all day, why would I want to go outside in the evening! I’ve got a perfectly good sofa.”
Men, what are they like? Sigh…
The tulips in the long bed just keep getting better by the day – every time I go out there, something new is happening. The latest addition is the little white species tulip called Peppermintstick. Alliums are poking their heads out now as well, can’t wait to see what happens when they emerge!
I’ve been umming and erring about the wildlife pond… I turned off the fountain earlier in the season, for fear that it would suck the tadpoles into the filter, but now it’s all gone very GREEN! My brother-in-law Rhys (black-hole physicist, head physics teacher, master gardener and part-time Chuckling Goat groundsman because Rich is way too grumpy to tolerate anyone working with him except carefully chosen family and team members) told me that the pond needed to be covered at least half-way by plants to prevent it going green with algae. And I did try – but my pond plants seem to be growing veeeery slowly!
In any case, after much agonising, I decided to turn on the pump again, to aerate and clean the water. The pond weed getting sucked into the pump means that the fountain arc is now much lower – and my (hopeful) theory is that the algae is providing a natural filter to prevent the tadpoles being sucked in! It does seem to be clearing the water – and from my research it’s a toss-up between oxygenating the water and damaging things with the pump, so heigh-ho, it’s cross my fingers, and hope that I’m actually helping.
When the grandchildren come over to bake cookies for our Friday tea party, they always ask to go out into the Magic Garden. And “Gugu” (pronounced Gee-Gee in the Welsh way, please, NOT goo-goo! ) is always happy to oblige! We love our pond-gazing…
We are all fascinated by what’s happening in the pond. And very enchanting it is! The toad spawn that have survived the Greater Water Boatmen attacks are now long and actually starting to actually wiggle… Note all the nice air bubbles from the oxygenated water. (That’s got to be good, right?)
My beans are ready to plant out and I spent the bank holiday weekend diligently studying instructions for the bean supports I ordered ages ago, which have been sitting patiently in boxes all this time. Lots of short supports and long supports…cross beams…finials… erk…I THINK I’ve managed it…although only time will tell!
Sending hugs from the garden – and hope you’re getting out into the sunshine!
Remember that YOU are an ecosystem of miraculous living creatures – and getting your hands into the living soil and the water to recharge that connection is the single most powerful and healing thing that you can do for yourself, your children and your grandchildren.
We are all so privileged to be part of this constellation of marvellous, magical lifeforms. Whether those living beings are inside your gut, on your window sill, in your compost heap, in the nearest park, in the Amazon rainforest, or on our lovely planet itself – they are all amazing.
Enjoy!
Shann.x
