And now for the garden . . .

Having more or less finished the refurbishment inside, the good weather this week has lured us (as if we needed any incentive) into the garden.  We have been looking forward to having the time to spend sorting out the garden - it is in need of a fair bit of TLC, to be honest - and it's been good to start a bit of pottering outside.  

There is a lot to do so we are just taking things slowly, one job at a time.  We have emptied the old compost bin (thankfully no 'nasties' lurking) and will be able to use the compost when we come to planting.  The bin is now set up in a new and far more convenient location ready for use.

N has been busy building a raised carrot bed:

Out attempt to deter the dreaded carrot-root fly

It's a jolly nifty bit of work; the container is the old water tank from the loft, removed when we had the new central heating installed, and the 'legs' are odd bits of wood we found under the shed.  A bit of upcycling like this is always satisfying!  The seed packet recommended sowing a few months ago but we have nothing to lose by trying a late crop.  It will be interesting to see how things progress.

Whilst N was busy with veggie gardening, I began the task of clearing up some of the beds along the side path.  We have a general idea of what we want to do in the garden and I think it's going to take quite a while to put those plans into practice.  So I started small, digging up and potting up a large grass (I could do with finding out what it is exactly!) that we want to move into a border that isn't made yet.  I was delighted to discover, lurking underneath the leaves, clumps of little cyclamen.  

These have been carefully dug up and will be re-homed elsewhere in the garden.  Soil has been sieved for the carrot bed, and stones salvaged for gravel pathways.  Nothing goes to waste around here.

Pottering in the garden soothes the soul. We have had some good news and some bad news this week, and being able to spend time outside, hands in the soil, has been very therapeutic and given me space to reflect.