Weeding frenzy!

Val enjoys the birdsong while she tackles the weeds

- Bob Flowerdew

BY the time you read this, we’ll almost be out of lockdown (hopefully)! Missing my family was the worst thing, but there has been one unexpected benefit – I have rediscovered the joy of weeding on my knees! Armed with my trusty kneeler, fork, and CobraHead tool, I plug away at my borders, instinctively plucking out the weeds before they get the upper hand. I’m alone with my thoughts and hidden from view, and there’s often soothing birdsong. After an hour or two, I find that my troubles disappear.

The late Christopher Lloyd, of Great Dixter in East Sussex, a former Amateur Gardening columnist, used to say he put the world to rights when weeding on his knees. He thought of suitable replies to criticism, or tricky family conversations, after the event – things he wished he’d said at the time. I’m not brilliant, as Christo was, but my brain churrs away with the wren because there is plenty of weeding at Spring Cottage. The weeds fly in from the fields, creep under the walls, and come in on newly planted pots. The two worst ‘nursery’ offenders are willowherb (Chamerion angustifolium) and bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta).