Bear blog

My little garden is coming on a treat.  We've now officially got radishes growing in the most unlikely horrible soil imaginable. The seed packet said that they could take as little as six weeks to grow. They've had about that, I think, but I'm wary about pulling them up. How do you know when radishes are done? And if you pull them up before they're ready do you think it's ok to shove them back in the ground. If you did it quick enough, maybe.

The herb garden's coming on nicely too. So much so that the oregano and sage are fighting for space. I need to take cuttings or split them in two or something of that nature, but God knows how. I'm learning about seasonality too. I hadn't quite realised when we planted everything that they'd flower and get seeds and stuff. It's hard to get used to when you're accustomed to wandering into Sainsbury's and finding every herb under the sun, every month of the year. The coriander is running rampant at the minute but I'm loath to cut it back because it's just flowered and absolutely covered in seeds. It's a pain.

My chilli plants are coming on too. We were going to repot them again soon, with the tacit understanding that at least one of them will die in the process, but now they're all starting to flower. One of them even has a little chilli growing on it. It's all teribly exciting. I'm checking on it twice a day and fighting the urge to take a ruler to it and log the growth. There's no way I'm going to repot them now though. Not when I'm on the brink of a major harvest.

Then there's the harvest that the cats are bringing in. So far I've had two mice (one of which was put to good use fertilizing the radishes), a big, fat blackbird, and a dragonfly. And I'm not really quite sure of how I should be disposing of them. The blackbird went in the bin, the mice have been distributed around the garden. I think Black Cat eventually ate the dragonfly after Gandini had finished playing with it. I hope the binmen don't come knocking on my door telling me I've contaminated the city. Maybe I should be burying them all.

Early this morning I was sat at the computer staring out at a garden when a huge fox jumped over the back wall and started sniffing round the shed. He pottered around for a bit and took a drink from the stagnant pond (looking terribly majestic as he was doing it) and had the nerve to come right up to the back door to sniff at the cat bowls. I thought for a minute he was going to venture into the house but Black Cat saw him off. He darted back up to the pond, took another drink and leapt over the neighbour's fence and off into the undergrowth. It was a nice little visit. I'm slightly worried about letting Gandini out though. Black Cat can handle himself but Dini's more sensitive.

I like my garden. It's interesting.