ON THE LAND

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READY FOR GROWTH

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Another frantic day of gardening activity at Ardhu recently and here are the pictures to prove it. The preparation of the ‘big’ garden at the front of the house is well under way, aided and abetted by my friend Tony we dug a sizable plot for planting and tidied up overgrown shrubs and trimmed the grass and hedge. Two reflections on the day in the garden, how good it is to work on the land and how unfit and unused I am to such physically strenuous activity !
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While we were at work a neighbour popped her head in and brought us on a tour of her garden where she has a wide variety of fruits and vegetables growing. She has been cultivating for the past three years and her well laid out garden is a testimony to her painstaking work over that time. However like my lettuce patch many of her plants and flowers have succumbed to the dreadful appetites of slugs. Despite these ravages she showed us raspberry and gooseberry trees, fig plants, potatoes, and even (optimistically perhaps) vines. This glimpse of garden Eden inspired us to further endeavour, and helped by the glorious sunny weather we ploughed on ,whipping the front into a semblance of garden glory ! So the work goes on and soon it will be time for planting.
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As a matter of fact on the morning of the day’s activity a large box arrived in the post with LIVING PLANTS INSIDE emblazoned in red across the outside. Inside were the seed potatoes I had ordered, this strain is reportedly blight resistant and slug resistant ! This arrival was another timely and inspiring incentive to get out and dig. By the way for all you slug watchers, the lettuce though scarred on the outer leaves by the slimy interlopers is beginning to ‘heart’ and I am still hopeful of the makings of several summer salads in the coming weeks.

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Gerard O'Shea