...and they're probably right, but there is method in the madness.A very exciting day today in the new vegetable garden. After all the long haul of rotivating, installing irrigation, laying the calade (paving), spreading wood ash and sheep manure came the fun bit...
We're calling it a potager, and placed as it is in the heart of the garden, it needs to look good. But not in a Villandry [row upon row of inedible ornamental cabbages, more hedges than beds] or Rosemary Verey (vegetables something of a garnish to yet more sodding roses) way. In a smart, practical way.
So I've formalised the layout with a box plant symetrically placed at each corner of the calade. I lifted them from the storage beds by the compost heap and carefully wrapped the roots in damp hessian. So far so good, so normal...
The biggest challenge to freshly moved plants is dessication - however careful you are it's impossible not to damage some of the microscopic root hairs that draw water from the soil. So the leaves wilt and look miserable for a bit. Or die. A bit of a lottery. So when the sun came out and the wind blew ("good drying weather" Mum would call it when she was doing laundry) I panicked...
The best way to stop plants drying out is to keep the wind off them and dampen the atmosphere... so I watered my precious box, and then as it got hotter and I kept working, steadily shed layers of clothing. Well, a T shirt lying uselessly on the ground when it could be put to much better use....
More photos of from the end of the day here
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