in the garden

One of my very favourite parts of gardening is the part where you do nothing at all. Every now and again, on a sunny day, there is nothing more pleasant or relaxing than taking a little walk around the garden. Just to look. To absorb the season.

It is amazing to see the different changes over time in the same garden. Some of these changes occur overnight (when did that rhubarb get so big?) and some are much slower with changes from season to season or only really noticeable when compared to the year before. My first walks involved a lot of dust. Everywhere. And foot long weeds. Now we have grass and the beginnings of the bones of a garden.

I took one of these walks a few days ago. I now know which of our blossoms is the first to flower (our ornamental double apricot/peach) and I think our crab apples will not be too far behind. These trees have now grown slowly over the course of the year since they were planted. But they seem to have thickened and grown taller overnight.

I like to notice where the sun hits during the different seasons. Where the shade is. Though there is not terribly much of that at the moment. But as the trees slowly grow up there will be more shade. Building a relationship with your land takes time and I think is best taken slowly. Concentrating on just one part at a time, while planning in your head the plantings of seasons to come.

The vegie patch is one place I like to visit daily. I've been trying to sow a few small crops every week, trying to keep water up. It is satisfying to see the seedlings pushing through despite the frosty mornings. And surprisingly still able to harvest some vegetables, though the garden has laid dormant (and neglected) for over six months.

And dinner that night? We enjoyed a beef stew with kale and broccoli (from the garden) with beef, barley and our roasted beetroot on the side. There is nothing like knowing that the food you are eating has come from your own garden. For years I watched my mum dig a new vegie patch with each different house that we lived at (well into the double digits!).  I really didn't see what all the fuss was about as it just seemed like a lot of hard work to me.  I gardened for quite a few years before I delved into vegetable garden growing. But now I know why Mum dug and re-dug so many vegie gardens all those years ago.