Weeds

A little garden update

If you've read the post where I introduced my garden to you ("how do you do?"), you may remember that in my weirdly L-shaped garden, the far end was used as a dumpster by generations of previous owners!

Peut-être avez-vous lu cet article où je vous présentais mon jardin bizarrement disposé en L. Peut-être vous souvenez vous que l'extrémité du L servait de dépotoir depuis des années et des années...

This was my first project in the garden.  It was obviously not all DIY, but I did all I could so that the project would stay in my budget.

Ce coin-là a été mon premier projet dans le jardin.

I began by removing all the weird stuff I could find in that part of the garden: from completely dryed out paint brushes to millions of oyster and mussel shells.

A gardener came to level the floor. It's not something I could have done on my own... He also turfed.

Après avoir retiré moi-même des tonnes de choses bizarres comme des vieux pinceaux et des tonnes de coquilles d'huîtres et de moules,  j'ai appelé un jardinier pour qu'il nivelle le sol et engazonne.

I bought an apple tree and a pear tree in a nearby nursery. I thought I would never make it home with the two trees though as it was very difficult to get them both to fit in my tiny European sized car! I kept swearing and laughing at myself on the nursery parking lot... Many people looked at me and I could see doubt in their eyes. But I made it... and none of the "specatators" helped me!

J'ai acheté un pommier et un poirier... seulement pour me rendre compte après mon passage en caisse que ma voiture était trop petite pour eux deux! Enfin, bon, il ne faut jamais me lancer ce genre de défi impossible car après une grande bataille entre eux, moi et la voiture, sous le regard amusé des gens qui se garaient sur le parking, j'ai fini par gagner et les ramener tous deux dans mon "verger".

I was only a beginner gardener and was very disappointed the next spring when that part of the garden looked like this:

None of the grass was growing as weeds had grown in its place. See, that's where I was going with my title. I'm not a suburban mom trying to find an illegal way to pay my bills!

Grosse déception au printemps suivant: seules les mauvaises herbes repoussaient! Le jardinier, rappelé en urgence, me proposait de venir traiter chimiquement. Quoi? Dans mon verger? Avec tous mes futurs petits fruits? Non, merci. Toutes les herbes ont donc été arrachées à la main petit à petit. Un mot résume bien cette décision: ampoules!

I called the gardener back and he suggested to use chemical products. That was a big no for me as this was the part of the garden where I had planted the apple tree, the pear tree and where I wanted to plant  raspberry and strawberry bushes.

So I decided to remove all (or most of) the weeds by hand. One word can sum up that fascinating activity: blisters!

But it was so worth every blister!

Mais ce petit coin de paradis méritait chacune des ampoules que j'ai pu me faire! 

Doesn't that picture make you feel that spring should be there by now? Truth: the picture was taken last summer, spring is very, very late here and it's too cold to have tea on the bench.

Thanks for following me in the garden. See you soon,

Merci de m'avoir suivie dans le jardin. A bientôt,

I'm showing off my garden at: