News from the Bates' Garden

We hope everyone is keeping safe and well in these very unsettling times. As we have not been able to attend our Centenary Dinner and other outings have been cancelled Bob and I thought we would give you some gardening stories.

Firstly, there has not been a murder committed at 77 Harwoods Lane. Well, not yet anyway.

Bob and I have been “self distancing”. He has been banished to the vegetable plot and I have been in the flower borders. This is because I asked him, to weed the flower beds and I found my favourite blue aquilegia and a peony had been dug up. Hopefully the aquilegia has been saved.

The potatoes were planted a few weeks ago and they are now coming through, meaning we will have to listen out to hear if a frost is likely.

My Dad had a saying, “The frosts of March you get in May”. If there was a heavy frost in March he would count 28 days until April and then another 28 days into May and quite often there would be a frost on those days.

I have a funny story about planting potatoes: Mum and Dad were planting the potatoes; Dad making the hole, Mum dropping the potato in and then Dad was going back to cover the potatoes with soil. I should explain that the rows were quite long and both were concentrating on what they were doing so did not notice the “help” they were getting from a certain Monty, their dog, and their three year old grandson, Russell. When Dad came to cover the potatoes he told Mum she had missed a hole, at which she was quite adamant that she had not. When he found another missing spud they were both nonplussed until they saw Monty take a potato out of a hole and run over to Russell, who then went and hid it. Both miscreants found this huge fun. Mum and Dad though it was hilarious and I always think of this when we plant our potatoes.

We have our own “Little Darlings” Buster and Cinders. They are 2 year old brother and sister Staffies, who love charging round the garden and helping Bob to dig. Woe betide any plants not suitable fenced off, including some new long cane raspberries. Although these were wired up Buster and Cinders decided they would be excellent material for a tug of war. To date out of 10 raspberry canes it is canes 4 - Buster and Cinders 6. But we still love ‘em.

I have noticed my lillies are growing well so I will be on the lookout for those pesky red horrors, lily beetles. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of meeting them you would think they would be easy to dispose of being bright red. However, you have to sneak up on them because if they see you coming they fall to the ground upside down, revealing their black underside which is a perfect camouflage against the soil so you can’t see them. For those of you of a sensitive nature look away now. The only way to get rid of them is to squash them, which I take great delight in doing.

Harwoods Lane is a quiet, semi-rural road and normally, apart from cars, we would rarely see anyone walking or cycling. Since the lock down the number of walkers and cyclists has increased twentyfold. While gardening at the front we have some interesting conversations, whilst maintaining social distancing. The general consensus is that when this is over we will all be either fat or fit - or alcoholic.

Happy lockdown and keep yourselves safe.
Carolyn and Bob