Weeding, weeding, weeding...

(sung to the tune of Rawhide!)

It is, indeed, a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it - preferably before that worryingly flowery looking bittercress turns to launching it's seeds into my newly clean and compost-topped vegetable beds...

I have a grand plan to cover these two shadier old veg beds with cardboard (of which we have a more than adequate supply still cluttering up the house after the move), dampen it and then top with a good few inches of compost from the old raised bed that I need to dismantle in order to create coldframes on that spot. Typically the soil seems too dry to allow myself to do this just yet but rain is forecast tomorrow and A is twitching for something to 'get on with' tomorrow morning, so if only I could get these weeds out I could set him on to the shovelling of compost about and save my own back!

So I've been wearily nibbling away at it today, in between leaping up and down to:

• secure tracing paper over masterpiece for E as the art urge strikes her;
• discuss, hold, help measure, quality control (!) etc for A as he battled on with the main vegetable garden gate saga;
• answer telephones, make cups of coffee and juice - you know, the usual

Generally I feel at the moment like the supervisor/assistant of many projects but master and achiever of none. This truly is ridiculous as all the projects are ones I want doing - the gates, the posts for the raspberry support wires, the seed sowing (oh yes, lots of seed sowing achieved today, just not by me.  I had an enthusiastic helper keen to do it for me...so I had the less fun part of sorting out which plant pots and trays to use, writing the labels, tidying up afterwards, but none of the actual exciting part of the sowing.  And I tried really hard not to hover in a perfectionist fashion to make sure they were sown evenly and covered carefully - honest!).  This is how I know I could never have been or ever will be in the future a manager of others in any occupation.  I just find it too painful and yes, stressful.  I just want to get on and enjoy doing it. Myself. Alone. Hmmm...when do they go back to school/work...?  I'm so ungrateful...

So, evidence that much belated seed sowing was indeed achieved:

Apologies for the poorly lit shot but it was so bright outside that my wee iphone could not cope, though it normally does more than well enough under most lighting circumstances for my requirements.  I was honoured to be allowed to 'borrow' L's bedroom windowsill for the birthing of the pumpkin, squash, courgette and cosmos seeds - he is now under strict instruction to be careful not to knock them over and be sure to talk encouragingly to them at least twice a day.  I have chanced to leave the sunflower seeds in pots in the greenhouse - I'm hoping I've done right here, as it's quite cold out there tonight.  If more cold nights are forecast I may just cave in and bring them into the house too.

The under under under gardener-in-training

I couldn't resist taking this picture of L let loose by himself with the petrol mower for the first time.  He concentrated so hard, and did a cracking job - I don't even think he mowed over anything he shouldn't (unlike his sister).

Thoughts this evening have turned towards serious design considerations for the 'new potting shed'.  This is due to increasingly being forced to struggle to find things/try not to get impaled by falling tools/break my neck whilst extracting myself from the hellhole which is currently the garden shed - all 4 ft x 6 ft of it - where all my worldly gardening goods are currently crammed.  If I had a pound for every time I've sworn under my breath in that shed today...

So, preliminary sketches have been made, pinterest has been scoured, attempts to convey style, purpose, importance and definite no-no's have been communicated to the Engineer who has turned quite pale and now gone to sleep probably due to exhaustion caused by the mere prospect of it all.  Isn't it amazing how they can be enthused and energised by the prospect of creating a treehouse or wood shed, but the idea of my place in the garden, my beating heart's desire, is too much if it can't just be an off the peg workshop/soulless garden shed?

I see the thumbscrews will have to be tightened further...