Forging Ahead with Spring

Whilst my blog remains in a state of half-renovation, I have promised myself that I will continue to blog regardless. This week has been a busy one, what with Spring making a sudden reappearance, doing a little provocative dance in front of me, and then disappearing with a two-fingered salute, as well as our rabbit’s major dental operation.

Geesh. The things we do for our animals. I wouldn’t call my pets “pets”, they’re more like members of my little family unit. And subsequently, when they need costly surgery that I really can’t afford (what are credit cards for, after all?), then what is one to do? The good news is that apart from the big thrashing that my debts have taken so far this year, the dental surgery seems absolutely worth every penny as our rabbit Ozzy is now almost completely back to his naughty, springy self, once again incisorless and coping well. He had severe malocclusion in his front teeth where they grow at the wrong angle so that they can’t be worn down properly, and as a result his teeth were going to overgrow and prevent him from eating, and possibly cause infections in his jaw bones. That’s how the RSPCA found him before we adopted him, wandering the streets with dreadful teeth, thin and matted, and that’s certainly not any kind of direction we wanted to go in. So he had his teeth out again – one of the best veterinary dental surgeons in the country performed the surgery this time – and hopefully all the germinal tissue around his teeth (rabbit teeth are open rooted so never stop growing unless you destroy these stem cells) have been destroyed and he will live out his days incisorless, but happy.

The rest of the week, in between giving Ozzy his nasty flavoured antibiotics, has been spent trying to make an in-roads with the post-Winter clearup outside. We have a number of projects on the go this year, including finally getting out Mediterranean/outside eating area cleared and set out, reducing the borders in the “suburban garden” part of the garden, and filling those otherwise bare weedy spots with nectar-rich flowers, taking out the rampant dogwood and sycamore and replacing with paper birch trees (more space for nectar-rich planting underneath and not as obtrusive), and of course, the veg growing. Yesterday Rich and I spent a good three hours putting copious amounts of hedge cuttings through the shredder, and we’ve only made a small dent in what needs to be done before Spring really gets her groove on. I’m going on the hunt for well-rotted manure so I have a little time in between now and whenever my non-existant seedlings are ready for outside planting to get the plots nicely enriched.

At the moment, I have 3 and a bit vegetable beds – one large, which also houses my polka raspberry canes, two smallish beds, and one tiny patch that was supposed to be a small manageable salad bed (and is currently home to some leeks). The plan this year is to combine the two smallish beds into one bigger bed, and then there won’t be so much poxy mowing to do. Eventually I’d like to mulch the paths around the plots so I don’t have to mow at all in that area, but I must be realistic and not set myself too many goals this year, otherwise come July I’ll throw down my hand fork and declare “I can’t do it!” before collapsing in the middle of the veg plots with a slimline G&T in hand.

I’ve always been inclined to garden and grow veg with wildlife in mind, but having watched Sarah Raven’s Bees, Butterflies and Blooms, I have of course seen that I need to actually really need to pull my socks up and “make it so” this year with my planting schemes. My small contribution could make a big difference in my tiny corner of England, and who knows, if there’s at least one person in every neighbourhood doing the same, there could be far-reaching positive consequences for the UK’s pollinating insects within the next few years. I say bring it on!