The benefits of living in the middle of a disused farm, with a retired benevolent hoarding farmer next door, is that whenever you need something, you can always certainly find it by just wandering around.
So I went for one of these wanders today and was pleasantly surprised to find some huge seed trays. These trays played into the temptation to grow extreme amounts of food again. So I brought the huge seed tray inside and filled it with a plethora of seeds. I couldn’t have been more unenthustiastic in doing so. Yet i carried on in robotic fashion.
A few years ago, I was beside myself doing exactly the same thing. Hundreds of seedlings-what a joy! Yet, this year, call me jaded, but all i could think about was the forthcoming repotting of these seedlings, the watering of these seedlings, hardening off these seedlings through a hokey cokey of ‘in, out, in, out’ and then eventually planting out. The novelty honeymoon period of gardening had certainly worn off this year.
Then a few days later, I started to smell a few things in the dining room. Not pleasant things. Eventually I discovered the smells were coming from a) the soil in the huge seed tray on the window sill and b) the pickled onions still sitting in the kitchen from last year. I now realised two things-why people have greenhouses and why people have pantries. I have neither.
So the pickled onions were the first to go-straight down the sink and into the bin they went. For some reason, I decided to do this 5 minutes before a guest arrived, so out came the essentials oils to try and mask the unbelievably strong smell. The onions looked absolutely fine as they filed into the bin, however the smell was intense! The seed tray was also taken outside, which signalled an end to growing all my plants from seed.
I also smashed my last china bowl today, which at the same time signalled an end to buying delicate crockery from charity shops!