Rogation Days

Today was Rogation Monday.  The sun shone and it was warm enough to plant out our winter squash in the 'crib' planter and an overflow tub by our front window.  Then it was on to the back garden to plant out the runner beans in two raised beds.

The Rogation Days of this week which occur before Ascension Day on Thursday have a long history. I did a little research on the Web: they have not been much celebrated recently.  Rogation Days were traditionally a time for the minister and congregation to 'beat the bounds' of the parish and pray for God's blessing on crops and livestock.  These are the minor ones.  The name derives from the Latin verb rogo to ask.

The origins of this festival may be antique but are their principles still relevant?  We would say so.  We do not delineate the boundary by beating it with willow wands, but we shout at grey squirrels attempting short-cuts.  We maintain charitable relations with our neighbours - particularly over the topic of shared hedges, and are reasonably open to negotiation as to the height these should grow.  We shoo away predatory birds and errant dogs, and monitor our ever-tamer blackbirds.  We pray because we experience no contradiction between conservation, good husbandry (an intentional pun) and invoking a blessing on what we grow.  

Today as we planted out the runner beans I noticed how nice and crumbly the soil had become in one of our raised beds.  It was almost deserving of the old phrase 'a fine tilth'.  I do not ever remember achieving such a high grade before.  Perhaps here in a smaller space, in a harsher environment and with blessing we can enjoy fruitfulness.

A Postscript

I wrote this post after a happy morning in the garden and an afternoon with friends playing music.  Only later did I discover the tragic news concerning Manchester. My thoughts and prayers are with all Mancunians.  

Temporary Staging Shuffle

I am grateful for a house after years of married life in flats.  Now I have more rooms and furniture than I ever imagined but less space outdoors. So just as in our maisonette I learnt to move stuff around, pull out sofa beds for guests etc,  so now in a small garden we have become adept at temporary staging.  

On our allotments we had a shed, two greenhouses - one large, one small - and any amount of staging; scrounged freestanding metal racks or wooden shelves constructed and tacked to the side of the shed by my husband.  I could sow cabbages or leeks in large plant pots, pretty sure that rain would fall, the sun would shine and they would germinate in the open air usually unmolested by pests.  And my husband could grow almost as many tomatoes as he wished under glass.

Here we have one small greenhouse and one potting shed.  So begins the 'staging shuffle' whereby we start in the shed (to avoid the pesky mice that ate our first batch of broad beans) and then move young plants to the back pavers in front of the greenhouse.  This being the north-west, where temperatures fall overnight, the plants are then put to bed in the shed until the next sunny period, by no means the following day of the week.  This process of hardening off, as gardeners term it, continues until the plants are strong enough to survive in the raised beds.  Our broad beans are now planted out; our runner beans are still shuffling backwards and forwards.  Our overwintered geraniums are on display at the front, risky but necessary as we have been promised some additional tomatoes for the greenhouse, and we also have sunflowers, sweet williams and hollyhocks plus fennel and dill in the potting shed, not to mention the squashes and coriander on our bay windowsill.  Once up, most these will go from the shed to the greenhouse and only take the sun on the pavers if appropriate.  Our planter at the front is ready for the winter squash and summer weather.

We sow according to our capacity.  It's smaller-scale and painstaking.  Plants need more care here and more protection from animals and the elements.  We have the time to give it.