Its official; I have a gumboot tan. For those who might not know, gumboots (aka wellingtons or 'wellies') are basically what we call rainboots in the US. Rubber exterior, quite stiff, fairly shapeless, about calf high. Traditionally worn on farms for their high durability and imperviousness (apparently that is not a word) to animal excrement. And mine have given me tan lines. Which I feel must be a mark of hard work living on a farm, so I'm slightly proud even if they look ridiculous.
Most of what I've been doing lately is clearing mom's 'kitchen garden' by the house. Its sort of like a treasure hunt, since many of the plants have been entirely - or almost entirely- covered by weeds. I'll be pulling some sheep sorrel and suddenly aha! there's some cilantro that came out of nowhere. There's rosemary in the clover, and cornflowers all over the place. Plus I think I might be saving the lives of our two artichokes, one of which already has a bulb! Of course, piecemeal weeding can also be frustrating, since its hard to use many tools. It should be nice when its done, though, and it does give me chance to be outside and work on the ever-attractive gumboot tan!
Speaking of farming, today we went to the 'Growables' expo in Nelson, which was all about plants, growing things (hence the name) and basically all things green. There were stands about trees, bees, permaculture, viticulture and everything in between. It was not only informative but also inspirational, and we came back loaded down with plants and big plans for the garden. In fact, we all came back and almost immediately went right outside to get back to work; which in my case meant recognizing that perhaps a lot of grunt work is necessary before big dreams can be realized. Still, my plans include planting lots of perennial plants, a possible water feature and some experimentation with different bed preparation methods. I'm thinking about contacting and/or joining some of the gardening groups around, to learn more skills and meet more enthusiastic gardeners. The future is wide open!
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