have been in active for the last two weeks. This is due to tearing a calf muscle while clearing leaves. It was such a lovely day with bright blue sky and I had a million and one things to do indoors but I just had to get outside.
It was the third wheelbarrow of leaves that did it. I pushed the wheelbarrow full of leaves to the appointed leaf drop position and ping. I heard a sound like an elastic band breaking and felt like I had been shot in the back of the leg. As I tried to put my foot down a dreadful pain shot through my leg and I realised that something was very wrong. I was up a slight slope and on the lane outside my garden so I hopped 200m to the house in order to get my husband to help. He sat me down found me an ice pack and we decided to visit casualty.
The upshot is that I am now on crutches and having physio. It is very difficult and tiring trying to walk let alone garden on crutches, although I have managed to reach the green house and pot up some spring bulbs that were buried under some fleece in the potting shed. I have become quite inventive in the ways that I have transported things around when no one is there to help. A small rucksack is a must to carry everyday bits that you might need mobile phone, pad and pencil, tissues, lip salve and the must have these days glasses!
The other must is somewhere that you can plonk yourself when your arms tire. My family have been positioning chairs and stalls for me all over the place and they have been very good at looking after me but I am not a good patient!
Anyway….
On the gardening front I have made copious notes about what I need to do A) when I can move unaided and B) the weather brightens up. Here they are:-
Green House:
Remember to open on brighter days for ventilation and to close in case of a frost.
Pick off dying leaves to prevent mould.
Take out old tomato plants and compost.
Keep checking for slugs and snails and other undesirable bugs.
Vegetable garden:
Clear up the soggy Rhubarb leaves and Borage plants.
Bring in some leeks and the last of the carrots (family to pick).
Continue to harvest kale and cabbage (again remind family).
Collect leaves (putting them into jute sacks) and lift the boards I walk on.
Tidy beetroot plants and cover to enable me to harvest baby beetroot leaves for salads.
Flower garden:
Pick up fallen branches from silver birch and keep for supports.
Re-tie in climbing roses and other climbers that have been battered by the strong winds.
Cover the pots I have missed with potato sacks or move into the potting shed.
Continue to dead head flowers that won’t stop flowering, great for the bees that I have still seen in the garden.
Tags: EcoCharlie Garden, Frost, Garden, Vegetable Patch, Watering, Winter
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