baybeasts

Today, inspired by a combination of this book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and the arrival of the blossoms and longer days that indicate the slow turn towards spring, I got my hands truly dirty in the garden for the first time in about a year.

I have been doing the bare minimum in upkeep this year - so far I have pruned the roses, planted out some ranunculus for spring colour, and turned a blind eye to the take-over bid by various enthusiastic plants (scabiosa, I’m looking at you). When I was anticipating maternity leave, I nursed a small hope that it would be an opportunity to spend more time in the garden - I dreamed of growing enough vegetables to make a meaningful difference to our food bill, of weeds conquered and flowers blooming and babies gurgling in their bassinets in the shade while I made all this happen. Clearly, I had absolutely no idea how much these boys would set my agenda for me, and that gardening wouldn’t be on it!

So today was simply wonderful. Huey hung out in the sling with bean, and Arlo hung out with Az who divided his time between helping me rip out weeds and removing small bits of dirt and other crap from Arlo’s mouth. I was gloriously unencumbered, and so was able to rip out an enormous, unprunable lavender bush (like unwanted hair, if it was pruned it grew back thicker and more luxurious within a week); weed gravel paths; and pull out an overgrown fennel plant. Best of all, I discovered an onion patch that I had forgotten about, and that was buried deep in weeds. Behold its current weed-free glory:

And this is what happens to a carrot that is left to its own devices for a couple of years:

I always find it hard to come inside at the end of a gardening session - there is always some small thing that simply must be done. Today, as I pottered about doing all those last little things, my family watched through the living room window, and as much as I love my garden, they were the most beautiful thing I had seen all day: