Springing into life

Gardening is infectious - the more time I spend out there; the more time I want to spend out there.  I remember the first year we arrived in France, with no work or real commitments I enjoyed the summer - hour after hour in the garden, turning a blank canvas that was just a field into a vegetable patch.  That summer the garden was spotless and regimented - the first time I had been able to grow our own vegetables and I learnt many lessons in the process.  The subsequent couple of years I was able to spend less time out there - new life in our family filled my days, the new life in the garden continued to grow amongst the weeds and long grass.

This year the kids are both older and need less attention and part of their lives is now filled with the same passion as me - creating a space to grow our own produce.  For the first time in several years the garden is ready for planting, most of the beds weed free and covered to prevent the weeds from undoing my hard work - I have become a "smarter" gardener, learning from my mistakes.

The recent warm weather with the odd rainy afternoon has meant that everything is oozing with new shoots and brimming with life.  The strawberries are in flower, the asparagus is providing us with new heads every day, the red onions are starting to poke up through the chocolate soil, the comfrey is in flower giving the bees a little spring time pollen party and our lettuces are sprouting, growing fast to provide us with our daily salad.  I spent a couple of hours trying (and I emphasise the trying) to dig up the horseradish that I planted about 3 years ago, it does not really taste of much and has slowly been taking over a bed which I now want to plant with flowers.  A word of warning to anyone thinking of planting this robust plant - keep it in a container!  The roots spread deep and wide - up to 2m long with a tendency to break whilst you are trying to dig them up!  I managed to get out a big sack full and gave up - I know that there are still roots in there and will continue to dig them up as they re-shoot.  I look forward to seeing the garden bloom and letting the kids enjoy the fruits of our labour (as well as us of course) - Mother Nature is such a wonderful gift to us all!