This weekend we didn’t manage to do anything in the garden, as we were away visiting family. We decided to set off on Friday evening, and just as we were leaving it started to rain. Understandably then, it was with great excitement that I rushed down the garden to check the water butt on our return this evening. I saw a neighbour on my way, and I asked how much rain we had had. She said that she leaves buckets out to catch the rain and that there wasn’t a great deal in them.
I scurried on, quietly confident that the water butt would have collected something. Before I knew it I was there, lifting the lid from the water butt and staring inside. I was instantly aware of light being reflected back at me; there was water in there! Not a vast quantity – the amount of leaves it had collected was more impressive than the amount of rain – but all that mattered was that it had collected some rain. There isn’t enough water in there to reach the tap outlet, so I can’t actually use it yet, but it’s nearer to being usable than it was when we left on Friday.
A start: our water butt is off the mark!
I decided to take a break from the garden tonight and get back to work tomorrow. I was in two minds as I walked back to the house. I’d had a quick look in the compost bin by the vegetable patch, which had been filled to the brim during the clearance. This evening I found that it has gone down quite a lot. We still have a huge pile of the weeds we cleared waiting to go into the compost bin. As there was a bit of space now, I was tempted to grab a fork and fill it up again. Or I could perhaps plant those spring onions that I mentioned in the last post. But I decided against it. I was very tired and thought I’d be better to have an early night and get back outside again tomorrow evening.
On my way back to the house I did get a pleasant surprise, as I noticed that we are very close to getting our first ripe strawberry of the season. It was completely green when we left on Friday, but is now not far from being ripe. Hopefully the birds and slugs will be considerate and spare this one for our children to share.
Very nearly the first ripe strawberry of the season