I’ve been complaining – no, let’s give it the proper title – whining for weeks about the weather.
After gorgeous sunshine yesterday, and nearly a full day weeding, I woke up to leaden skies and my buck rabbit Barabas, thumping the ground to let me know a thunderstorm was on the way. I love a good thunderstorm, though the rabbits and chickens probably wouldn’t agree but the rain is back. And frankly, we’re all sick of it!
The only positive things are the water tanks are still full and the amount of green feed we’re getting for the chickens and large growth of treats for the rabbits – chicory, nasturtiums, thistles and blackberry leaves especially.
To give you some idea of what I’m facing, this is a picture of a garden bed – not a weed patch.
This was last weeded and mulched six short weeks ago. Underneath all this is a lovely small-growing bottlebrush that brings native birds into the garden, garlic, potatoes, cauliflower and silverbeet. I made a start yesterday but after the storm passed this morning, I couldn’t quite face mud-filled boots, so I switched to weeding the raspberry bed.
This has been another of my ongoing experiments. Last year I tried planting bare-rooted canes along my north facing wall but some very inventive starlings and a ridiculously hot summer saw all casualties and no survivors.
This winter, I tried again with a few bare-rooted canes in a raised bed in front of the greenhouse – with ample bird-netting! And again, nothing! But I did get a brilliant crop of mushrooms, so no real complaints.
In desperation, I bought a pot of sprouting Chilcotin canes from the local hardware centre a few weeks ago and literally emptied the pot into the bed alongside the canes that didn’t take. Finally, raspberries are growing and forming beautifully in my garden. Imagine my surprise then, as I was about to pull out what I thought was a dead cane today and spotted new growth from the base of two seemingly dead canes!
After all that whining, finally a win!
Debra Manskey 