janestarz | It's never full!

Every gardener knows that at some point you really can't cram any plants into the garden anymore. If you do, one genus will outgrow another, take its shade and water and before you know it, the strawberries are beating up the tomatoes and we all know where that road leads.

I find that it's not really, technically speaking, true. I ripped out one of those really long stalks to shed more light on my courgette plant that was gasping for some sunlight. It has several flowers, and when you compare function the courgette wins every time, hands down. The long stalks have huge leaves and pretty flowers that attract bees, but its berries are poisenous and its roots are never really gone, creating more of the same just where you really don't want any. The courgette will shower you with edibles and so far has remained pretty low to the ground. It creates less shade, but then it behaves much better and stays in its pen.

New additions of this weekend are a pumpkin plant because they were on sale for less than € 1,50 at the Lidl, and if I can't sow it myself I'll bloody well buy it. We also found some solar-powered garden lights at Leen Bakker for eight euro, which should help with me stumbling about after school on cloudy nights.
If I need more space, I can always rip out more of the mock strawberry. So it never really gets full.

I am proud to say the garden looks like there's at least some thought in it, even if it is "oh dear Lord!". Stuff is growing fast now that the sun seems to be here to stay, and I'm cutting back mock strawberries and even some of my campanula since they're going for the throat of two of my thymes. Dusty was a little apprehensive that I was ripping up her bramble corner, but she likes to lie under the catnip as well. (My cats are not very fond of the plant variety, apparantly, which is a shame because I mostly got it for them!)

Stuff might need some moving early next year. The blackberry is a good 30 cm away from the wall I'm trying to let it climb and wherever the branches touch the ground they will make new roots. The catnip is falling over now it gets larger, and it is falling over my path as well. I have no clue if cutting it back might help enough, but I could push it backwards a bit.

I'm also starting to recognise soil effects beneath the plants. The (mock) strawberries keep the ground loose and the shade they provide means the ground stays moist as well. Tansy has the same effect, but the tansy I kidnapped with my little trowel last year seems to have taken some weeds along as well, and these grow well since some light still filters through. Beneath the beans and radishes the ground is baked and hard-packed, although that should get better as their leaves grow larger. The radishes might not get a chance, they look large enough to eat already. The Bane grows well, everywhere there is a bit of free soil (so I should hurry up getting the garden full!)

Every gardener has the bane of his or her garden. I believe Hollyhock features high on some people's lists. My father had it with aegopodium (bishop's weed) and mine is the galinsoga that just doesn't want to stay away. I just hope at some point the soil beneath my tomatoes is baked enough to erradicate any trace of it, but I doubt I'll get there before the wild strawberries move in.

In any case, I'm learning more latin every day. Shame I'm not actually allowed outside in the sunshine because of the antibiotics I'm taking. In any case, if the first bumblebees can be believed, we will have a wonderful crop of raspberries this year, so that is certainly a good sign!