Green fingers

Ah! Time for the garden update. We did loads of work on it last night though I have to say most of that work was done by me due to the husband not being able to tell the difference between grass and onions. He required instruction on nearly all of the other jobs that I gave him as well- and yes, you did read that right. I had to give him jobs to do because he couldn't work out what needed doing next by himself and I then had to explain said job and instruct him on the best way to do it. He didn't even know how to pot up some plants! I hadn't realised just how useless he was around the garden as he's always managed to cover it up by using big spades and power tools. At one point last night he got bored with the job he was doing (after about five minutes of it) and just wandered to the back of the garden and start haphazardly hacking bits off of my elderflower tree. I was so shocked that he'd chopped off about 25% of it before I managed to shout him down. For some reason he had just assumed we didn't want it. Luckily he missed all the bits with the berries on but as it was I was forced to chop another 25% off just to neaten it up as he'd left loads of sharp ends at eye level (I really mean the haphazard part). I'm still gobsmacked about it- it was just such a different tack to wander off on and without even thinking to check what it was first. The man is a monster! He did plant me a nice row of sunflowers as a kind of make up for it but even then my input was less than minimal. I swear, he has the common sense of a dead duck when it comes to gardening. I kept having to remind him not to stand on the pumpkin leaves and when I complained he said he couldn't work in that bit of the garden because his feet where just too big (!!!) and went to watch some football. Between the two of us we did manage to get the vegetable patch weeded (no mean feat), pot some plants on and gap fill with seedlings I've had in peat pots to grow on so it's looking super pimp at the mo. We also got our first mini harvest of strawberries and there are some nearly ripe blackcurrants that I got to gloat over. I managed to get rid of all my excess tomato plants at work/knitting group the other day which is good because I now have 14 garlic plants after I split the bulb up and potted them on. We have also added chillies to our selection along with some basil and tarragon. I think the only thing that I'm missing is oregano for my mixed herb group. I've got some coriander seeds to plant this weekend but I've run out of pots and places to put things now so that really has to be it! I just hope it all comes through- everything seems to be very tiny at the moment so it might just be a late harvest. Oh well, this is only our first year doing it after all so we can't expect to get it right first time can we?