It was warm yesterday and then in the late afternoon it began to drizzle on and off. So i was gardening in the rain. One of the most beautiful sights is gentle rain on the gardens. The plants grow as you watch them here. Literally. The season is short and almost tropical.
By evening it was raining. So ignoring the dishes, we sat out on the verandah to listen.
My flower beds were designed to imitate the big farm gardens in New Zealand. So the house is surrounded in deep beds of perennials. There is too much garden for one little woman farmer but I cannot help myself, I love to dig, so I am very forgiving about weeds. I call my gardening theory Cleaning the Moat.
I start in one garden and then I work in a clockwise direction around the house, like the hands of an enormous slow clock, weeding and watering. I move in the same direction all summer. No garden is free of all weeds all the time. Ah well. No plant is always perfectly pruned and trained all the time. Ah well. No amount of wildness is too much. Well. Of course. Holes are always being dug and plants are being divided and moved from one garden to the other. And no garden is finished, flower gardens are fluid, always evolving. This is why gardening is so addictive. Gardeners see what they are going to create as often as they see what they have already created. We live in a colourful dream world. Such a nice place to be.
The same rule applies to the mowing! There is no time when all the mowing is all done at the same time. The flower gardens, orchard and vegetable gardens are scattered over a big acre. So the job is divided into sections and I will mow and finish one section a day. I spend about an hour a day on one of the nine huge flower beds (they all have names) and adjacent lawns and collect three big buckets of weeds for the chickens and one for the pigs. Then I move to the vegetable gardens to do the same. For me the flowers are as important as the vegetables.
There are many many jobs on these eight acres. I think it is important not to try and get it all done every day. Forgiving myself the weeds is critical to my personality. Perfection is only a vision it is not a reality to a person with an imagination. And everyone has an imagination. We are always thinking of the next plan and the next plant to flower, and what would happen if we took cuttings from that shrub and plant them along the back over there. Just leaning on the fence watching the animals graze is as important as pulling that bloody creeping charlie out of the Bird Garden.
Good morning. I know some of you cannot have a little garden, let alone a big one and those of you who can are eternally grateful. And there have been times in my life when I was just as happy with a window box of geraniums and a few pots of basil and thyme in the kitchen. One of the pieces of advice my grandmother gave me as a young mother was to put my hands into the soil every day.
Today I am digging up some day lilies in the way of the construction and bringing them around to Donna’s garden where they can spread out and fill a gap. The soil will be damp and the day will not be hot, perfect for gardening today.
Have a lovely day.
Your muddy friend, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
57 responses to “Gardening in the rain”
I know you already have a tall teenager, but if you need extra help I have a short 20-year-old I can ship out to you. Cheap. She can sleep in the barn loft next to the peahens.
Put her on a train! I have need of a short 20 year old, the tall teenager cannot keep up! if she sleeps with the peahens she will also have three cats, a multitude of hens, 2 roosters and The Shush Sisters for company.. perfect i think! Pigs are warm.. c
She would love it, especially the pigs.
Your weeding pattern makes sense. In some areas I follow the Houston Rose Garden advice and put several layers of newspaper around new plants then cover with mulch – those areas will stay weed free for a pretty long time. The newspaper just dissolves and helps hold moisture until it’s gone
Porches make such nice viewing areas for storms. Even better on farms with wide spaces!
Have a nice weekend
Cinders, please tell us the names of your gardens!! I love that you name everything! 🙂
heaven, simply heaven to read your blogs every day!
We have five little gardens, and two little children plus six or seven extra ones, which means the “Clear the Moat” method is our default, too. They know already, the kids do, about putting their hands in the soil, every day. How odd that as we grow up, we forget what a gift the mud can be!
This is the only time of the year where the flower beds are clear of weeds. Even now, the front is beginning to show weeds and the rose beds have some vines popping through the mulch. I’ll clear what I can, when I can, and that’s just fine. Love your black tulips. I brought some bulbs back from Holland and planted them at my last home. If I ever go back, there will be black tulips at this house, too. 🙂
Tomorrow’s Evanston market day. I’ll let you know how well-attended it is. Last week not even half the vendors showed up. Have a great afternoon & evening. Light a fire. It’s going to be a cold night.
This COLD! I am back in my winter gear today! What is this all about!?.. c
This afternoon’s weather guy said that this will probably be the last cold spell. The next two weeks will be warm and we may even have record high temps next week. What a roller coaster!
roller coaster indeed, this is more like NZ weather actually.. c
I agree with you…a little each day, the work gets done even if it is not perfect.
The Farmy gardens are perfectly imperfect… it’s just personal taste of course but I prefer wild messy gardens – my MIL’s is perfectly tidy & weed free like a park, nice but less interesting. And weeds have their place, in and out of the gardens – an hour spent weeding and chopping back vines is very therapeutic 🙂 Ditto for cleaning a house, I’ve finally learned, over many years, to clean as I go and go with the flow – if there’s no time for dusting, there will be another day, maybe.
Verandah’s are the best invention ever, for finding a patch of sun, or listening to the rain on the roof & on the garden and enjoying the beautiful fragrance when the 2 mingle.
It’s a good day when the sound of rain beckons, “Come, listen,” louder than the dishes needing doing.
Why did it take me so many years to realise the house can be messy and dusty and that’s alright? Having retired to the country with a very very large acreage to play in , I dont see the inside of the house a lot. 🙂 My only problem is that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. 😦 Your remarks about your garden so reflect how I view and dream about mine. Joy
Definition of weeds: plants YOU do not want! I have quite made peace with many of mine! Having a bad back I garden exactly in the same way as you [shall do my bit for the day in the drizzle after lunch 🙂 !], a little loving few metres evey day AND my housework gets done in the same thus manner!! Wanting things ‘perfect’ is kind’of neurotic, methinks! [Good excuse?]. And I can’t believe your agapanthus are out: ours come on mid-summer!!!
Dull women have immaculate houses, that’s my mantra. In the winter there are so many different kinds of weaving to try. In the summer it’s the gardens. When it’s time to weed I hear Winston the donkey begging for a cheek scratch. While I’m in there Otis & Ralph the goats insist upon a good head rub and Rita the chicken is pecking at my shoes telling me to sit down so she can sit on my lap and we can have a bit of conversation. About then Ember & Sal, the horses call to me that it would be such a lovely day for a ride…..
Check out the poem “I Meant to do My Work Today” by Richard LaGalliene, I had an English teacher in high school who would forgive missing assignments if you could recite it.
so lucky to be surrounded by all that beautiful greenery C.
Gorgeous gardens.
What a lovely day spent in the garden C.
🙂 Mandy xo
I so completely agree that there’s nothing to say…including sitting listening to the rain…