Rosemary and Thyme
March 27, 2007 at 5:34 PM
by Ashleigh
The weather today was pretty fantastic. It got up to 19C!
Unbelievable for March.
So, guess where I was?
Planting lemon thyme, eau de cologne mint, apple mint, common thyme, sage, chives and chervil. I also planted a campanula and another plant - can't remember its name. Now isn't that a good start? Plant stuff and have no idea what it's called?
I had to ask for the water to be turned on so that I could water my plants. Yesterday they wouldn't turn it on so Sebastian had to do some seriously dangerous scrambling to get water out of the canal for me. Today that was absolutely not happening. Seb wasn't with me and I had no intention of ending up in the 'sloot'. I firmly requested that the pump be turned on and finally it was. Good thing I bought a ten litre watering can because it took me about 10 trips to water the few little plants I have. I see a hosepipe in my future.
I continued the work we did on the weekend and dug over some more beds. I discovered a large rhubarb plantation at the back of my plot so I'm planning to move the rhubarb plant I bought over there to keep the others company.
While I was there one of the other gardeners asked me if I had planted some special kind of bean plants. I asked why and he said it was too early for beans. I replied that I had some thermal fleece for them and so if frost was forecast I could always protect them. He seemed dubious about whether they would survive. I felt like saying 'Dude, if they die I'll just plant some more! Get over it!'
One cannot be rude though, one has to maintain one's 'normen en waarden'.
Sadly five of the bean plants got broken off by the wind - four Borlottis and one Contender. I need to replant some to fill in the gaps.
Life is definitely stranger than fiction. Remember I told you about the Chinese girl, Hong, from my class? You can imagine my surprise when she appeared with her mother in law at the volkstuincomplex!
Her parents in law have a garden there. It was so nice to chat to her and meet her family.
Another coincidence? One of the ladies who works at the natuurwinkel has a volkstuin in the same complex. So, that's two 'contacts' I have at the garden. How's that for six degrees? We have over 100 000 people in our town and two of them, from totally different areas of my life appear in a third, unrelated area. Weird.
I found a long term weather forecast for Europe which is very useful.
Let's hope the warm weather continues!
Comments
I wish we had a garden here in Beijing - I plan to grow some things in pots in Malaysia next year.
Glad you're having fun down at the tuin. I'm sending you a virtual spaghetti Eis to enjoy while you admire your plantlings.
Oh, your tuin sounds absolutely fabulous.
We have a little plot behind our house, but it's horrendous. I'm determined to eat least make it look pretty this summer.
It's so nice to hear your stories about your moestuin. HOpe the wether styas like this (not only for your plant's sake! I knew Nehterlands were small...but when you have the coincidences with meeting people...it's even smaller than you thought! I tend to encounter people that live close by abroad on holiday or something..which is really weird.
Oh a volkstuinkompleks sounds so much better than an allotment! And your plantings sound amazing. Our little garden has appalling soil (clay on building rubble I think!) that anything we plant has to be in a pot for its own safety. And we have plagues of snails and bugs that love to eat anything edible. So kitchen garden is no proceding apace around here!!
Wow, that is pretty cool, running into people from different aspects of your life at the volkstuin.
I'm sitting here with my blonde munchkin on my lap, reconsidering my standpoints on "unnecessary" immunizations and gender-based roles... LOL!
March 27, 2007 11:33 PM