Lots of Gardening Done Before and Since

This post was started several weeks ago...........
Before the 11th
After the cold of April gardening got started in the first week of May and a few things were done in the week before Colin became more unwell............... he helped me put the wire-netting fence  around the cutting garden. That's foiled the ducks and pheasants from taking a short cut right across it!

Col had sown lots of beetroot seed several weeks ago and covered it with fleece but what with one thing and another we hadn't looked underneath to see what was happening and when we did look it seems the wind and rain on the fleece hadn't protected the beetroot seedlings but rather rubbed them all out of the ground.....well not All but lots. So the fleece was lifted onto wire hoops and I shall be re-sowing in the gaps when the remaining seedling get going.

Next job was to finish  putting compost on the pea/bean bed  and fork it in. I put up canes ready for the French climbing beans and hardened them off for a while.

Everything in the greenhouse is fine except there was a disaster  when  both my remaining cucumber plants collapsed.......not really sure why, as they were covered with fleece when we had those cold nights. Replacements were found from the car boot sale.

Since the 11th
I've thrown myself into gardening, keeps me busy, so I've cleared along one side of the greens bed leaving just the spring cabbage, which are so late, then compost  was added and courgettes planted.

Lots of grass cutting, I can work the ride-on mower, but I'm a bit dangerous with it. Col hardly ever let me have a go and even cut the grass with it the week before he died. I'm much safer with the small rechargeable mower, it might have been expensive to buy but it certainly is an easy machine to use, starts easily, light to push, easy to empty, easy to charge the battery..... I sound like the TV ad!

The two gooseberry bushes that I planted just after we moved here are covered in fruit, the old blackcurrant likewise. Not sure about the raspberry canes yet. Strawberries have flowers. I'm hopeful for several days of my own soft fruit this summer.

I'd love to know why the only place in the whole garden where there is bindweed is in the end of the bed where I planted the asparagus crowns last year?  I'm pulling and digging it out every time I see a new bit. I think I'm winning. Horrible tenacious stuff. 9 out of 10 asparagus crowns have survived the year. Next year I'll be able to cut one or two to eat. I found the cat rolling in the dry dirt around the asparagus crowns so put lots of prickly bits of hawthorn hedge on the bed to stop her.

10 maincrop potatoes planted.....very late. The early potatoes look OK except for a couple - must find out why -. Leek seedlings have been re-potted. I think they will be the only winter veg I'll bother with as it's such a faff trying to protect the brassica family from cabbage white butterflies/white fly/pigeons etc.

Mangetout peas are all planted  under a fleece cloche. Climbing French beans are planted out. The Tomatoes, Cucumber, Aubergines and Peppers have been moved into big pots around the greenhouse and then I ran out of compost. Spring onion, lettuce and radish seeds sown in the half barrels on the patio and I rescued the Bay tree from the nettles that were growing up around it.

Still to do.........Sow runner beans in pots, I'm late. Put up canes for them. Do hoeing and more grass cutting and loads of weeding in the two front flower beds. Colin edged them with tiles last year but because I can't work the big strimmer it's just a mess.

Finally lots of watering every day because now the garden really needs a good rain, we had a short shower yesterday afternoon but it didn't do much good.

Back Soon
Sue

More Things You Have To Do

Thank you to everyone for supportive comments on recent posts. It is really wonderful that so many people are thinking about me and the family

 I still seem to be OK most of the time, managing to do all the legal and paperwork stuff and lots of  gardening. I guess because of spending so many weeks on my own at various times while Colin was in hospital it still seems a bit like that, so it will be later that I really feel things.

The next thing to sort out was financial stuff and the will.
So appointment made to go to solicitors with a list of what papers to take.

There are so many people to notify.

The registrar gave me a code number to use for the Tell-Us-Once service which deals with lots of things like passport and DVLA...... But when I went on line to do it I couldn't get into it - just an error message. So I phoned up and was told that the registrar had entered the wrong month online. The Death Certificates were OK, which was the most important thing.........so many bits of paper are needed for everything....it's all very confusing. Try to get Registrar to tell them about the error and that's a busy number for all of Suffolk's Registry Offices. Leave message. Get new code number. Try again. All seems OK. Get right through until the end of the process, press submit and ERROR message Again! Try and find out why......not sure. Give up. Resolve to do everything individually and direct, which turned out to be almost as simple!

Except of course every phone number that you call  is a press button 1, 2, 3 etc and loud music while you wait......"we value your call".....?

Phone calls made, forms printed off, forms filled in, forms posted.

Council Tax notified....  there's a 25% discount for single occupancy -  every little helps - but it sounds so final and sad.

After all that I was glad that no one works  weekends so I could have a break from the phone.

Back to the phoning after the weekend.
My car needs it's MOT test done so phoning for that and appointments made all over the place.

Phew

Then off to sort the funeral - Col's sister came too to keep me company. It's only 10 months since she was there with Colin planning their Dad's funeral. Colin had decided the who, where and what he wanted for the funeral and we have ample time to sort things out. I certainly wouldn't want to do everything in just a few days. When I said the funeral wouldn't be for a while it is because of various commitments already made by people that can't be changed - it's not a problem.

Lots of people to notify now and more appointments to make then I had a  dentist appointment for a big filling, which if it doesn't work will mean root canal stuff - not fun. Worst of it is I still have to go back again for another filling or rather having a tooth rebuilt..... it broke a month ago when I bit a Toblerone(won in a raffle) that had been put in the fridge.....annoying! If that treatment doesn't work it will mean having the tooth  capped - all sounds horrible.

Thank you to everyone who thought of making a donation in Colin's name, that's a lovely thought. We are having donations to two things. One is Lymphoma Action and the other is the cancer ward support group at Ipswich hospital. But any Cancer research charity would be grateful for all the help they can get. It's amazing how many cancers are beatable now thanks to research but there is still more research needed for Non Hodgkin Lyphoma, as someone said in comments the other day, nothing much was known about it at all just 40 years ago but things are getting better especially for some of the more common types. The Mantle Cell type that Col had is one of the rarer ones.

Thought it was time for a new header photo as we head into June. Taken on Tuesday when the sun was making dappled shade through the big trees at the end of the meadow.

I have so many posts in drafts that were written weeks ago and if I leave them much longer some will be nonsensical so I'll start posting again more regularly for a while.

Back tomorrow
Sue

Cards and Flowers and a Rose

So many people sending kind words and love in cards. Flowers from the small WI and a rose bush called "Thinking of You" from good friends.

Thank you everyone.

Back Soon
Sue