About half way?

So here is a thing about me. I love my garden.

When we moved in, in 2015, the front garden was a lawn, with a row of very large conifers behind a 3ft wall flanking the pavement. It was dark and had a couple of shrubs in it, which didn’t do all that well.

About 8 years ago we had the conifers and wall taken out and the lawn removed. We made the gravel drive larger (planning ahead for 3 plus cars, what a great move that was) and turned the rest over to a large (and I mean large) bed.

Since then I have been tending it religiously. I started with 4 trees, three shrubs, some grasses and a few perennials. I also planted some bulbs and scattered some wildflower seed in one area.

Over time it has matured pretty well. I lost some stuff and other stuff has gone mad, but generally it is doing OK.. a bit wild but sort of under control. (That may be wishful thinking on my part).

Some years some stuff does very well, and some doesn’t. Last year, the rudbeckia loved the wet spring, the salvias hated it, and this year the reverse is true. In any condition the ox eye daisies and nigella (I prefer it’s common name, Love in the Mist) always do well…. because they are thugs and prolific self seeders. The verbena bonaseiris also always do well (and are my favourite plant ever).

However, it isn’t an easy garden to manage. My main issue is that I garden on heavy clay. We added some top soil at the beginning, and I allow the tree leaves to lay each winter to rot down, and I add compost when planting. But it is basically still clay.

And so it is either a wet, sticky mess or rock hard.

After a specific quantity of rain, it has a sweet spot were it is workable, but one milliliter over and its a sticky mess and one milliliter under, it’s rock hard.

Last year we were in a sticky mess. The spring was so wet. The garden looked green and lush, however, although a lot of stuff  was badly eaten by the army of slugs. What is the collective name for a lot of slugs? Munch? Slither? Plague? Whatever the word, there was a hell of a lot of them.

This year the spring has been bone dry. And my ground is rock hard. There are no slugs that I can see! Bonus. I have had to water all my new stuff (sweet peas, some more salvias, three hardy gerberas, some sedums, and two hellebores). These were planted earlier in the season in that sweet spot I mentioned. The ground was damp after winter but not a total sticky mess.

Anyway, this year I have grown some half hardy annuals; cosmos, sunflowers and zinnias.

They have been on my front room windowsill for a couple of months and I have been hardening them off for what seems like forever.

Firstly, the overnight temperature went down to 3 degrees last week. In May. Not good for my tender plants!

And then I was waiting for rain, in the hope that the ground would soften up a little.

It rained overnight 2 nights ago. So today was the day.

I had about 30 plants to get in the ground. And it has taken me 4 hours.

I ache all over. And even now some of the sunflowers have no support because I can’t get a cane in the ground. I considered a drill at one point, a kind of pilot hole.

Anyway. They are in. And watered. And I have collapsed in a heap.

My Fitbit says I haven’t exercised today. It’s lying!

Wish my plants luck, and please pray for rain!