Having been chastised by the new garden man as to the lack of watering and feeding of my garden, I have set to it with gusto, starting early in the morning with the sprays on the lawns and only switching them off during the heat of the day, to be turned on again around 4pm. A liberal sprinkling of lawn fertilizer has been applied, and two bags of general plant food will be scattered later today. There are sections of my garden so remote from our daily activity that I doubt whether any water apart from rainfall has touched ground in the last 30 years! This will doubtless be a shock to the system and I am expecting to see jungle-like growth within a week. Then I will have to have the gardener back to hack away the excess and cut a swathe through Africa with my Rolux Magnum. Here are some 'before' pictures. I don't know how long it will be before the 'after' pictures will be available!
Of course, all of this would be impossible if we didn't have copious amounts of free water 8ft underneath our property in a little aquifer. For years we made do with a hand-dug well which HWCFA excavated when we first moved here. It usually dried up by the end of December as it relied on seepage and the water table was always too low by then to do the real job of keeping the garden going through January and February. Since we put in 4 wellpoints we have been able to water almost continuously right up to the end of April when the rains usually are under way again. This is no excuse for not feeding, I know, but doesn't time fly by?
If the results are not what I am expecting, then I will know once and for all that it's not lack of food or water, it's just that I'm no good at gardening!
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