Monkey Mind

Progress at the field has been somewhat slow this week – and frankly a bit depressing. 

Not happy unless something is churning round my mind at night (toss-turn-sigh-toss-turn-sigh-thump pillow-toss-turn-sigh-toss-turn-sigh…), I have had more than a few nights with those bloody monkeys going non-stop.

Worry 1: I don’t think the plants are rooting any further down than the imported compost. The ground under the cardboard - undug, of course (just what have those worms been up to all winter?) - is compacted and stony. How could the roots penetrate? I have dozens of plants still to plant out , some of which need a planting hole much deeper than the compost, which has sunk down to just a couple of inches in places. What do I do about those?

Worry 2: Some BASTARD is eating my crops! All the aforementioned cornflowers are gone. Rabbits? I can’t see that the fencing has been breached. Could they be jumping over it? It’s as high as was recommended but maybe that’s not enough these days.  Maybe rabbits have evolved. Maybe some super-rabbit is leaping over it.*  Maybe it’s deer – although the Kindly Smallholders say they don’t get deer, and anyway there aren’t enough footprints – just the occasional hole in the compost. Pigeons maybe? Do they eat cornflowers? Don’t think it’s slugs. Not with that huge pile of grit round the plants and no slime trails.

I have dozens of plants desperate to be planted out, some of them just about to flower, and I have somewhere to plant them. But what’s the point if the crops are just going to be eaten?

Worry 3: The wind. God, the wind!! It’s driving me absolutely bleeding bonkers! Surely it can’t be doing the plants any good. And what about the flowers (if there ever are any)? One stormy night and they’ll be devastated. See below for temporary solution. You can’t really see from the photo but it’s very Cath Kidston - that made me smile if nothing else did this week. Don’t think it will protect the crops, but it gives me somewhere sheltered to sit and contemplate what the hell I’m gonna do with all these plants and all this land.

And, blimey, charity shops are expensive these days!

 

 

* That’ll be those SuperBugs they’re always talking about on the News.