~ Urbania to Stoneheads ~

And now to the news i alluded to in my earlier post.. I had an email this morning from the people at Schmap, a new kind of internet guide, asking if they could use one of my photographs for the seventh edition of the Manchester Schmap! Its only on the shortlist at the moment, they were just basically asking if it’d be okay if it goes on the shortlist, and i won’t get any money from it, but the recognition alone is great and i’m so pleased with myself!!!

I’ve had a look around the site and it looks quite good, although there’s not a huge amount in Manchester yet – and i’m not terribly impressed that they’ve got the Lowry, which is in Salford Quays, (North East of Manchester city centre) in Withington, which is in South Manchester…!!! and yes, i’ve emailed them to tell them.

This is the photo they want to use, and i’m so pleased they’ve asked me, and of course i’ve said yes – i’ll post a link if and when it goes up, which will be in late may…

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Everything is busy growing in the garden, and all i really have to do (“all”, she sais) is to sow things at the right time, prick things out at the right time, plant things at the right time and water at the right time. and feed. that’s basically what being a gardener is about: management. enabling the plants to do their business, namely: growing.

I’ve been trying to get out into the garden almost every day. It does make a difference and i feel so much better. Even just pottering, moving things in case of frost, pricking things out, planting and watering is healing for the soul. Yesterday i moved some aqualegias – these had grown wild from seed that probably drifted across from a neighbour’s garden, who also grows them. Aqualegias have the most gorgeous delicate flowers, in multiple colours and styles, but the seeds do drift and if you don’t nab the seedheads you will get wild sown ones springing up in the garden. They also have a long taproot, which meant that digging them up from where they had wild sown (right against the wall) was difficult, and one i broke beyond use, sadly. I got three out though, and i’ve planted them next to my existing aqualegia which came from mum a few years ago (and is going great guns in bed 5). Mum’s promised me some more, so with luck i’ll have lots of pretty delicate flowers in the garden this year to make me smile. They were originally growing in the front – well, i wouldn’t call it a garden, its a dumping area, full of rubbish, but which also has rhodendrons in, year round, but little else, so no one was going to object to me “stealing” the aqualegias. (I also cut some of the rhodie flowers for the house. They do look gorgeous.)

Aqualegia - this is the one that mum gave me a few years ago.

I also sowed a whole bunch of seeds yesterday. Herbs in the window mini greenhouse (the kind that comes with a clear lid), and cukes in a couple of pots, double bagged in the cold frame. I think i’ve only got a few flower varieties to sow now, and french beans, and then its just keeping ontop of all the successional sowing.

I also took a whole bunch of pictures of everything growing in the garden. Something else I’ve realised, just the other day, is that with the “dip”, i’d stopped taking photographs and doing anything creative and i think this was responsible too for feeling so down. Something to remember for the future, i think: keeping my mental health “up” relies on exploring and indulging in my creative side as well as getting out into the fresh air (and gardening, lets face it, is 80% management, 5% frustration, and 15% creativity!).

Anyway. Photos behind the cut. I’ve also done some as photo-a-day’s, backdated, so feel free to look back through them (or i will do them after this blog post).  And i’ve some news to share – but that’s for another blog post!

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I got myself out in the garden this afternoon. I was determined not to have another day of slouching around on my backside. The tomatoes got potted up (some of them were most unhappy and a couple outright died – hopefully this will have sorted them out), the basils got pricked out, the courgettes are now all in bigger pots, and i’ve done some rough frames for the dwarf beans to scramble up in the two pots by the back door.

and to deal with the frost risk, i’ve moved all the outdoor plants into the arbor, which i’ll cover up with fleece later this evening when the idiots outside have gone. and just about everything else is squeezed into the cold frame.

Am i feeling better for my labours this afternoon? Somewhat. I’m very tired, but its a good kind of tired, the tired that comes from working physically. (even though all i was doing was standing at the staging, working away, its still enough to tire me out). I’m pleased that i haven’t spent another day on my bum, and i can relax for the rest of the evening, guilt free.

no photos – there’s not much to take photos of, to be honest – but i’ll be back out there tomorrow, probably sowing cucumbers and a few other things…

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you know.. when you’re struggling not to dive headfirst into a depressive cycle, the last thing you need is an injury that stops you doing the thing that helps prevent it. My arms were very sore after i made the stupid mistake of trying to mow the lawn with the strimmer in one go a few days ago: my lower arms and hands were shaking for quite some time afterwards. The following day they were really quite sore.

Which put paid to me doing any work in the garden for a couple of days.

Instead, i read. a lot. Which was, in retrospect, a mistake, as i’m now struggling even more.

*sigh*

Still, i managed to get into the garden this afternoon, moving the onions and garlic back to bed 1, and transplanting the radishes into pots. With luck they’ll take. And hopefully i’ll stave off any more depression by getting out there again tomorrow… i *will* beat this!

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