Digging

The earth was wet this afternoon, after much heavy rain. The perfect time for digging. We garden-clawed four new holes: Two by the back porch and two to the right hand side of the yard if viewed from the back porch. What went in them?

Raspberry bushes!

Right now they are still wee little baby raspberry bushes, mere sticks protruding form the ground. But as well as all the weeds do back there, I have high hopes that so will these intentional plants.

It especially brought me great joy to see my two oldest daughters working together on this project, side by side. It was very peaceful and wonderful.

We are all learning how to garden together, each of us brand new to the knowledge and tasks required of us.

The baby spinach is coming up, too. Teeny little specks of two-leafed green peeping up through the ground.

I did not remain crummy-feeling all afternoon like I'd feared after that konk on my head and subsequent nausea. I'm such a whiner, really, when I ought just to be grateful.

Comments

Has said…
Good luck! We can hardly grow anything in Australia. We are in the middle of a giant drought. We are not allowed to use sprinklers or hand-held hoses - only buckets or watering cans allowed. Except for 4 hours per week when we can turn on our dripper systems, if we can afford to install them. Plus we just had 16 days straight of around 39 degrees celsius. That's really really hot. Everyone's garden died. If we see a green garden, we know they've been cheating. But rich people can obviously just afford to pay the fines and keep watering.

I hope you get some raspberries! I've never eaten a raspberry.
Unknown said…
Speaking as the owner of three little bitty blueberry bushes which have been little bitty for two years now: make sure you are protecting those tender young shoots from the appetites of local rabbits! They will chew the bushes right down to the ground. They love spinach too. Let me know if you want any chicken wire.
Alana said…
I'm hoping that owning two cats will be to our advantage, here.
Alana said…
h and s...can you use brown water to water your garden/yard? It takes some hooking up, but then you have a watered lawn with no more water usage than what you are already using in your kitchen.

...not that WE are doing that, or anything...I've heard of it being done in drought riddled Texas, though.
Has said…
Re brown water - yes lots of people do that here. Problems are (a) we are renting and (b) our laundry water is technically "black" water because I have small children (aged 6, 4, 2, 6 months) and so laundry output sometimes contains human output as well! Maybe when we buy a house we can do it. Our kitchen is on the other side of the house to the lawn, so very expensive to arrange kitchen water flowing onto the lawn.

I guess Aussies need to learn to use less water. At home we've been bucketing water out of the bathtub and onto the garden - that way, we managed to grow some corn over the summer.

It sounds absolutely delightful to grow berries!!!!

And gardening is so therapeutic. Great for frazzled mums.

Is it a popular pursuit in your country? It used to be here, but in ALL the cities there's an unprecedented housing boom, also known as a "land grab" where everyone divides their blocks, builds two big townhouses with paved areas out front and back, and sells it for a massive profit! So most people don't have a garden. Anyway, they're too busy watching TV.