In the herb garden

Now the sun is occasionally emerging from the clouds, I've been motivated to get into the garden and start some spring cleaning.

It's nice to document the changes in a garden as I get the weeds out, compost up the soil, get the new seedlings planted and then the spring warmth (when it arrives) starts everything growing.

So far we have thousands of lettuces from last year's seeds, silverbeet, beetroots, carrots, broccoli, spring onions, beans, pumpkins and cucumbers already in the ground, and last week I finally got around to putting the next round of seeds into trays, including all my new tomato varieties.

This week I started by weeding the herb garden:

Chives, oregano and thyme in pots, everything else in the ground


Flea repellant stuff whose name is eluding me


Some silverbeet in the herb garden too (you can never have too much)


Apple mint, my favourite of the six varieties growing here
(it's in the upper right hand area, somewhere)


Some more herb seedlings waiting to be planted out


I pruned a few roses, too. Leaving some of the prickly clippings around the garden bed discourages pest animals from trampling the new plants. In theory, anyway...


And then I weeded, weeded and weeded some more. It's not an easy job.


But you can make it easier if you strangle any annoying vermin before you get started...


Officially, as in according to The Boss, whose impulse purchase he is, the vermin's name is Moss. A noble name, by which many great dogs through history have been known.

In reality, he's Moff, and he's BabyJ's dog. In our house, there's Dadda's dogs (Fwed and Tess), Mama's dogs (Biww and Muddy), and now there's also Jack's dog- Moff.

His mother is Glenview Ruby (Glenview Polar x Glenview Jessie) and his father is Grassvalley Tod (Princes Tom x Grassvalley Lisa). He has a short coat, sharp teeth, a loud voice and no common sense. He's a pain in the rump.