24 Apr 2013

Conquering the 15 minute blog post

Sweet Pea Swan Lake

The warm weather over the last week or so has sent gardeners into a frenzy of seed sowing and transplanting, by all internet accounts.  I have not been immune to this as I've previously delayed sowing anything, instead enjoying the relaxed calm of being unable to plant anything out, bar my broad beans and hardy herbs.  This week though, my waking thoughts are concerned with which seeds I can quickly sow before work or in my lunch break, I calculate which plants can be planted out in the hour after work and before dusk falls.  I'm constantly poking my fingers deep into the soil in seed trays to make sure they're correctly watered.  There's a huge amount of seeds to sow and plants to go out and this has coincided with the start of college's summer term, assignments to be completed ready to hand in and a visit to two trade nurseries, as well as digging over and planting up a small shady border at the road end of the garden.

I've taken photos and composed posts in my head but have had no spare time to write anything; so, today, I have resolved to try and master the art of the quick blog post so that I can post more often and keep up with all that's happening.  Well, that's the theory anyway!

And today's photo?  Well that's a sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus as I have to practise Latin names), growing on my balcony since last year and behaving like a perennial.  It was a pathetic spindly thing that never died at the end of last summer but, as it still had green leaves, I didn't have the heart to pull it out.  I've had greenery all through the winter months and now it's about to flower again.  It's a subtle creamy coloured flower called 'Swan Lake' and very welcome as a sign of the muddled up weather we've had, growing among the mini daffodils, muscari, violas and herbs in my balcony window box.

Hmm.  30 minutes. Not bad.  Over and out.


20 comments:

  1. I can definitely sympathise with you on trying to find time to fit everything in. A blog post usually takes me a couple of hours what with finding and editing the photos as well. Sometimes when I am pondering, trying to find the right words, deleting and trying again the post isn't as successful as one I just bang out quickly. There just aren't enough hours in the day at the moment.

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    1. And I with you Elaine! You have a much bigger plot and garden to fill than I do and it doesn't matter that we know to expect this every year, it's always the same! Busy, busy! No matter how I plan things, everything takes at least twice as long as anticipated - and that definitely includes blogging!

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  2. I have some sweet pea seedlings in the greenhouse. After last years disastrous attempt I have more hope for this year.

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    1. It's always good to start the season with hope and great expectations. There was so much wrong with last year's growing attempts, surely this year MUST be better! I wish you lots of luck and good weather for your seedlings!

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  3. I've got a perennial sweet pea in my border and it's a thug. I tried to dig it out last year even though I'm loathe to get rid of plants, but it's back again, popping up all over the place. My annual sweet peas were sown a few weeks ago and have made lovely sturdy little plants. They'll be going out soon. I'll definitely stick to the annuals from now on.

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    1. I have to admit to preferring annual sweet peas to the perennial variety, Jo - they seem to flower more, and for longer and, of course, the choice of colour is amazing. I have just sown my sweet peas for this year, so I hope I'm not too late. It doesn't matter how I plan, something always gets done late! I'm looking forward to seeing this year's floral harvest!

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  4. If you were a 'ten-minute gardener' you should be able to do a post in the same time!
    I'm neither so it takes me ages to do a blog post even a quick one! Flighty xx

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    1. I like your yardstick, Flighty! I'm definitely not a ten minute gardener ... once I'm in the garden, there's always little jobs to be done and so the time spent flies by. I do love it though - as indeed I enjoy writing about it. Sometimes when time is tight it would be so easy to just stop blogging but then I'd miss out on keeping up with what everyone else is doing! xx

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  5. Like others who have commented here, I can seldom whack out a blogpost in 15 minutes. It's like with food: fast food is often nasty and lacking in depth, whereas food that is cooked long and slow is often better. When doing a post I like to take my time, choosing and editing the right photos, writing the correct words (often changed several times) etc.
    But like everyone else I'm VERY busy with the garden at present. Unluckily I was away from home on a business trip for a few days earlier this week, so I have had even less time for the sowing and planting.

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    1. I hope you haven't come back to lots of weeds, Mark! They grow quickest of all at this time of year, don't they - it's my constant challenge to keep the weeds to a minimum. I absolutely agree with your food analogy - I try always to cook with fresh ingredients from scratch and find takeout and junk food really disappointing. Gosh, I hope that's not an indicator of how I've written this quick post!! Yesterday's post took considerably longer ... lots more photos to take and a better story to tell ;) xx

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  6. Its such a busy time of year, everything needs doing at once and no time to do it all. I actually managed to sow my sweet peas on time and now have good little plants to plant out, even better, my neighbour kept them going while away on holiday!

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    1. Pauline, I was just saying the same thing to a neighbour this morning! I had to remove chickweed, bittercress and other weeds from the back of a deep border - necessary to continue with planting out the plants that I do want to see there but I would rather have been sowing more seed! How lovely to have a kind neighbour that will care for your seedlings, it doesn't often happen like that these days - you're very fortunate!

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  7. It's like trying to do an impossible sum at the moment Caro trying to fit everything in with such a late spring. I'm struggling and no longer have to fit work in! I well remember thinking about plants in my lunch hours back in the days when I did :) That sweet pea has done amazingly well to come through the winter - it deserves a special medal.

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    1. Inevitably something gets forgotten, Anna - in my case it's my tomatoes, only just sown a week ago as I didn't want spindly plants languishing on the windowsills. The extra hours of light in the evening are useful, except then dinner gets delayed because I'm gardening! The sweet pea has opened and has bizarrely become a rather lovely cream backed with deep purple pink - reverting to a pre-breeding gene, I wonder? It was definitely cream last year!!

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  8. I love the idea of a 15 minute blog post. It is one of those times of year when everything seems to coincide. I remember a few years ago when I was doing my RHS exams in June and spending April and May revising and being grumpy because I couldn't be in the garden growing. And of course the weather doesn't help. I seem to be spending a lot of time at the moment running around with fleece protecting plants from frost. ;) All good fun though.

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    1. I can truly relate to the frustration of not being in the garden, Welly. You must be revisiting the RHS exam years with the pressure of writing your book so I hope you can spare some time for gardening! I'm still watching out for those cold nights but I'm only fleecing my French tarragon and new blueberries now. It must be a lot colder in Wales and I believe I'm correct in thinking that your plants will feature in your book so have to survive? The pressures of work will ease for me in June (slightly) and again in August - too late by then to do much in the garden except spray aphids!!

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  9. I think I need to learn to do short and quick blog posts, it would really help my time management! I've had to slow down with my seed-sowing frenzy as I realised I am running out of room in the kitchen garden and can't afford to have lots of containers to water this year as I just have to many other things to do. It would help if I had more room inside for seedlings but the peppers, chillies and tomatoes are still in the conservatory because it keeps getting so cold at night still. Ah well, hope things get a bit more relaxed for you soon, just remember to breathe!!

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    1. Judging by the amount of hits this post has had, I think it's a subject that everyone would like to crack! It's ironic that at the very time we don't have time to blog, we have the most to write about! My windowsills are also full to bursting, my balcony too. I'm looking forward to being able to sow outside, then I just have to worry about slugs, snails and cats! I like your advice to remember to breathe - that's definitely a good mantra for me! Take care and keep going! Caro xx

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  10. Caro! Your blog post is music to my ears. I thought that starting my blog last November would give me enough time to get used to it and manage to fit it in quite quickly in between gardening. I always have something to blog about so surely it would be easy - not at all! The more I do, the more I have building up, the harder it is to blog it out there! The other thing is, I've gone from having a list of about 10 daily read blogs in my bloglovin account, to about 40! I love reading blogs but am struggling with that now too! I love the idea of the 15 minute post...now I just need to figure out how to make that work! At least we are all happy gardeners though and getting out there, which is the main thing :)

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    1. Hey Anna! Yep, yep, yep and yep - I totally agree with everything you say! It's a constant battle to find the time to do it all and now, on top of all else, my seedbox is making me feel guilty ... everytime I look through it, I'm finding seeds that I should have sown by now or want to sow before it's too late! There are never enough hours in the day for me - even with the lighter evenings! Stay with it, lovely, it's worth finding the time both to blog and garden!! Caro x

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