The best feature of our gardening life with M is that we do the tasks we enjoy the most. For example, today we visited M's plot to help her move a tree which was intruding into what has become her temporary structure, which she treats as a greenhouse, coffee lounge and chilling-out space. Note that when I say we, I usually mean my husband.
I do not dig up trees, as readers may recollect.
This morning he was able to transplant an inherited apricot taking it a few feet down the slope to her orchard area. Fortunately it was a fairly young tree and not too much damage seems to have been done. Then my husband and M got down to the enjoyable (for some) activity of positioning two enormous panes of thick glass within the gap which had now opened up in the ramshackle wooden frame of the structure.
I left them to it. I weeded around M's greenhouse base where she has sown spinach for over-wintering, around her cherry tree and along the line of her top plot boundary and then took a spade and fork to some extremely deep rooted weeds. I also sifted out as many white bindweed roots as I could find. I weeded around the concrete tank which now houses M's rhubarb (large and flourishing) and finished off by clearing a spot for cultivation and covering it with a weed suppressant plastic tarpaulin. M has indicated that she may want to sow broad beans in November or potatoes later in 2015.
We stopped and relished the warmth of the noonday sun, sitting on old green chairs under the corrugated plastic roof of the structure. I ate (probaby too many) apples straight from M's trees to prevent my blood sugar from dropping too rapidly. This is an almost unavoidable consequence of diabetes, strenuous exercise and allotments but when I tested at lunch all was reasonable. Then it was off to do a paid gardening job in the afternoon.
What a perfect blend of activity.
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