More Garden Progress and a Few Financials

I did a bit more work in the garden the other day. Our raised beds were full of foxglove and forget me not plants that had self seeded and were preventing us from sowing some salad seeds.

As a consequence, and not wanting to waste good garden plants, I dug them out and put them into one of the borders to make a kind of woodland corner and used some to add a bit of colour to other areas. Notice I left the track the dog has made in the border unplanted. No point wasting my time, just for her to trample anything I put there to death.

Once cleared, OH could then add some compost from our hot bin and start sowing lots of lettuce seeds. He also made a few adjustments to the raised bed covers to prevent squirrels getting in and disturbing the seeds. We've had this problem for a few years now and last year they ruined all our seedlings, so we didn't actually manage to grow any lettuce in the garden. Hopefully, this year we'll have more luck.

As well as sowing lettuce seeds, OH also sowed lots of other seeds into trays and pots. They are currently residing on window sills in the kitchen now the weather has turned colder, but at least we've made a start to the growing season.

I also did a bit of re-potting of one indoor plant and a mulberry tree that we bought last year.  It desperately needed potting on, but now looks a lot happier.

I tackled the front path too.  It had layers of fallen leaves trodden into it.  I'll admit that I had to get a hoe to scrape the leaves off the concrete path, before I could sweep them up. It looked a lot better once done though and is much less slippery under foot as a consequence.

I now just need to tackle the end of the garden. As I've mentioned before, it is a bit of a dumping ground at the moment. I just want to clear it and maybe rearrange the paving stones to make it look a bit tidier. With DIY stores closed, there's not a lot else we can do for the moment.

I read today that £200 million worth of plants grown by nurseries will have to be destroyed this year, causing them to suffer from severe financial hardship. It breaks my heart to think of all those wonderful plants going to waste. So sad for the people who've grown them too.

Our financial situation isn't great at the moment, but we are relatively lucky.  I am being furloughed on 80% of my part-time salary for the next two months, or however long this lockdown lasts. I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones, who should hopefully still have a job at the end of this, although there is no guarantee of there not being redundancies and shop closures in the future.

OH on the other hand, who works for himself from home, is finding that the work is very much drying up. We are considering a mortgage break, which our mortgage allows anyway, to take the pressure off. Hence, my reduced salary will be much needed to see us through.

Fortunately, we are not spending much money being at home and having plenty of food already.  We just top up mostly fresh items each week. I think I am going to brave the supermarket this afternoon. OH went this time last week and said it wasn't too busy, so I'm hoping it will be the same this week.  I'm slightly nervous at the prospect, as I haven't been out anywhere, save to walk the dog locally, for over two weeks now. You very soon become very cosseted in your own home and become almost anxious about going out.

I've been trying to keep in touch with friends, some volunteers and work colleagues on a fairly regular basis. I finally joined Facebook recently, something I've resisted for years. It was mainly to view dance videos from some of the classes I used to do, but should prove useful whilst on furlough. I've just been notified that a new personal Facebook group for Shop Managers in our area has been set up, which is great, as we will all now be able to keep in touch during the furlough and know if everyone is ok, or support them if they are not.

I hope you are all keeping well and busy and managing during this challenging time.