Lazy garden approach gets things done

The best kind of gardening goes on behind your back.  Or, in my case, while I was off having cake and coffee with a friend.

After a rather fine morning out, I returned home to find the husband had got stuck in and sorted out the vege garden.

He chopped down the raspberry canes, tidied a garden path, dug over a patch ready for the veges and energetically attacked the mustard jungle.

Back in April we’d sown a packet of mustard seed which quickly grows up to become a carpet of green over the garden.

It’s a wonderful idea – it means you can forget about doing anything to that part of the garden all through the long winter months.  Then you chop it down and the plants fall to the ground and continue to work their mulching magic, adding organic matter and generally doing good things to the soil structure.

The only trick to remember is to chop the stuff down before it gets too big, certainly before it’s flowering.

The first time we planted it we definitely left it too long and when we came to chop it down, discovered the plants were tough and woody. While the over-all idea still worked, it did require a little more effort.

This time we weren’t going to make the same mistake.  We wouldn’t let the young mustard plants grow too long – and happily for me, the job was done while I was off the premises.

Under strict cat supervision, David chopped the mustard off at a little above ground level and let if fall.  Now it’s just a matter of letting it get on with the job.

When the weather warms up, we might go out and give it a fork over, and then, when the planting frenzy is upon us, the soil should be in fine shape for an abundance of new seedlings.

I do like gardening.

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