I expect this lovely long weekend is going to throw me all week long.  It feels like a Monday, but all my Tuesday tasks are calling for my attention.  And in the meantime, all of my Monday jobs are also calling out saying ‘don’t forget about me’.  So here I am posting my Monday update on a Tuesday because yesterday, I didn’t do much of anything at all and found that is exactly what I needed to do.

It seems like a lot of us feel like we are behind this season, and it can feel overwhelming at times – and when you start looking around and seeing what others are doing it can make things seem even worse! 

But whatever stage you are at, don’t worry. You will get there.  If you are in the south and not ‘keeping up’ then the cold is your friend – it gives you a little extra time to get things going before it is warm enough to plant things out.

And if you are in the North your warmth will allow slow pokes to burst into life at a great rate of knots eventually.

For those in the middle, well it is always good to remember that while Labour Weekend is the ‘Great Planting Day’ – it is not the only day and gardens can be planted all the way up to December and still give you a good harvest.  Think of these ‘Planting Dates’ as the starters whistle, but mixing my metaphors, remember it isn’t a race.  We might be in a competition, but it is certainly not to see who is first.

Gardens are really forgiving and while we may feel we are on a tight schedule, nature is a lot more free and easy.  One of the wonderful things about gardening is it allows you to slow down from the hustle and bustle and work alongside nature at her pace and find a moment of peace and calm.   Leave the worry and the hurry for life outside of the garden.  I hope this helps someone this week.

In my garden I still have the last beds to enrich, and the bags of compost have been sitting beside them for weeks now.  I really must get on with that… hopefully this week. 

This weekend and the reason for doing nothing on Monday was I had to lift some of the heavy paving slabs along the path at the backdoor because the rats had tunnelled underneath making the path a bit of a death trap.  They had been stealing the goat food that we kept on the porch.  But unfortunately, our dear old Snowy the Goat passed away this weekend so after having a little cry, removing the temptation of the goat food, and fixing the path seemed to be the right thing to do.

This week in the garden I will get those beds enriched, and there is transplanting to be done and I’m going to work on some windbreaks. 

My favourite product this week is:  Yates Sprayfix - Wetting Agent which you add to your sprays to help give good spray coverage, helps it stick to the leaves without rolling off and helps penetration into leaf tissue.

I am using it regularly to spray my garlic with fungicide to keep the rust at bay.  There are signs of it but so far it is manageable, and my garlic stalks are fat so I hope they can make it to the end of the season… with all the help I can give them!  https://www.yates.co.nz/products/disease-control/yates-sprayfix-wetting-agent/

I have edited this post to say the lucky winner of this weeks free seeds is Somerset Sue.  Congratulations.  I'll get those seeds off to you as soon as I can.  

Happy gardening and as always – if you want to get in touch leave a comment below.

Sarah the Gardener  : o)