A bit of gardening

I've not put the effort into the garden (or the allotment, but that's another story) that I should have this year. Which, quite frankly is rather silly of me, since 2020 was the year everyone gardened. Or did other stuff they don't usually find the time for. I think that's part of the problem really, Elder Son & I had done lots at the allotment until he went back to work at the end of June, & then I felt overwhelmed at having to do everything so cunningly did nothing. Which isn't entirely true, of course I still did stuff. But it was more the 'sitting on the sofa watching Hinterland on Netflix & knitting gloves & a hat for Elder Son' than the 'dashing off to the allotment for a hard day's work' stuff. 

And then, due to drought when the grass wasn't growing followed by lots of rain so it grew like crazy, the lawn had too long to cut with the pushalong lawnmower, so I had to cut it by hand. Which took a while, mainly because the first day I went to do it, I did too much & ended up with big blisters on my hand so I couldn't do any of it...

Lawn now back under control, & I even managed to use the lawnmower last night. 

 

I got home from walking the dog this morning to find the bird feeder covered with birds! And when I sat on the bench to eat my breakfast, they came back from having flown off while I hung 2nd load of washing on the line. I saw a robin in the garden for the first time! There were lots of starlings, some sparrows, at least 1 blue tit and other small birds that I couldn't see clearly enough to identify. 

I felt inspired! & got the mini propagators ready & looked through the seed box. I don't actually have much that can be sown in October in the UK, but set a couple of packets aside for the allotment. I broadcast the calendula & californian poppies in the garden (mainly the wildlife area/shrubbery & the lawn border) before planting sweet pea seeds into fruit punnets for the propagators.  

Lathyrus belinenisus Fabaceaea are short yellow-orange sweet peas, that Younger Son & I bought a few years ago.  Lathyrus odoratus 'Mollie Rilestone' are cream with pink edges, height unspecified from a big bag of seeds that a parent gave to work a couple of years ago. And Lathyrus odoratus 'Heirloom Mix' - up to 6ft tall - are some that were free with a gardening magazine.  (Sometimes, I manage to remind myself that it's all very well saying "The seeds were free with a magazine" but if I do nothing with the seeds or magazine - well, I'd have been better off buying seeds when I was ready to plant them. But not always :-D)

'Mollie Rilestone' said to soak overnight first, but I just wanted to get them all planted. And I don't hold much hope for 'Mollie Rilestone' anyway, as very few of the other seeds in their big bag did anything. 

We'll see! Anyway, they're planted, labelled & watered, & the propagators stacked on the living room windowsill.