Veg gardens

Well I was wrong about the weather over the weekend but right about the duck egg! On Saturday morning the first egg of the year was lying confidently in the straw when I let the ducks out and another one was there this morning. Don't want to harp on too much about this time last year but this time last year we'd actually hatched some! Must look out for hidden nests - there are five females altogether and so far just the one is laying.  Some of them  like to make nests behind the bushes and round the back of the flower pots and then you've no idea how long they've been there. Apart from running a cold bath when you're longing for a hot one, there isn't much more disappointing than having a rotten egg when you want to make an omelette with only one egg left. (I exaggerate of course - there are masses of things more disappointing - like setting out on an adventure in the car and finding you've got a flat tyre and you can't undo the wheel nut.}

So, with the promise of a warm week to come I'm thinking of vegetables and thought I'd post up some pics of vegetable gardens that I've made with the help of my friend Matt who does all the wonderful construction work. Here are three more veg gardens done for clients. I must say I wish I had a veg garden like any of these. We don't have the room here and anyway the veg patch we used to have has gone now as we built The Pink Tower on it. So not only do I not have a veg garden like these - I don't have a veg garden at all. Still, it doesn't stop me thinking about vegetables and where I might squeeze some in.

this one is edged with step over apple cordons but they are out of sight.

And this - also out of sight - is edged with lavender and purple sage.

The lilies are poking up now in the pots in the polytunnel. I grow pots of Casa Blanca and Speciosum album which I get from Peter Nyssen Bulbs. They are wholesalers but don't seem to mind selling to the general public and they have a wide variety of bulbs. I get my tulips from them too.This one below- Lilium Nepalense- is outstanding. I can usually only afford one each year as they are pricey but they are so beautiful. I rarely get them to flower again the following year which all the other lilies do most obligingly.

Lilium Napelense

The amaryllis in the house are putting up a grand display right now and some of them are sending out quite a few flower spikes - so just as you think that's it for the year and you cut down the old stem - another one shoots up when your back is turned.

Amaryllis Green Goddess

Amaryllis Matterhorn

The gate leading to the veg garden I used to have!

In my next life I might grow more vegetables. Meanwhile - this poem by George Carlin has a rather better view on a next life.

My Next Life

I want to live my next life backwards;

You start out dead and get that out of the way.

Then you wake up in a nursing home feeling better every day.

Then you get kicked out for being too healthy.

Enjoy your retirement and collect your pension.

Then when you start work you get a gold watch on your first day.

You work 40 years until you're too young to work.

You get ready for High school: drink alcohol, party, and you're generally promiscuous.

Then you go to primary school, you become a kid. you play, and you have no responsibilities.

Then you become a baby, and then ...

You spend your last nine months floating peacefully in

luxury, in Spa-like conditions - central heating, room service on tap, and then ...

You finish off as an orgasm.

I rest my case.