Onwards and Upwards

I've had a good day. Spending time with my brother, who was visiting, taming the garden (which is tiny, but labour intensive). It felt WONDERFUL to cut back last year's deadness, empty out pots full of weeds, and get a head start on the war against dandelions and slugs. Brother even braved the horror that is my compost bin, turning out last year's compost and refilling it with today's trimmings and rakings.

I always love discovering which plants made it through the winter, finding their tiny, hopeful, furled shoots breaking through the earth, courageously fighting for another season. The alium that never does anything spectacular, and is desperately susceptible to slug damage, revealing six inches of growth behind the lamb's ears. Maybe this year it'll flower!

The aquilegias are going to put on the good show. The named, large varieties already have a good collection of fern-like leaves and delicate stems. Even the little common or garden varieties are getting their act together.

In fact, this was the first year I could approach some plants and simply pull out clumps to tame them. This is a new garden - this is only it's third season, I think - but some plants are already getting to the kind of maturity that makes them a joy to work with.

There were some failures, of course. I'm on a hiding to nothing with the lavendars, and the lupins never make it. The former doesn't like the climate, the latter the snails. But I'll perservere. There are some plants I just have to have.

So. Very happy with gardening progress.

Very happy with writing progress, too. Another five pages.

Feels oh-so-good.

(See, Mighty Mentor! I was a good girl!)