A weekend in the garden

I don't have a garden of my own but D very kindly lets me do all the work in his... Because we've been away a bit and the way work shifts have fallen though it's probably been a couple of months since I've been in it and maybe longer since I did any actual work - sometime in May I moved bits around, and they seem to be alive still so that's nice but sadly most of the herbs have gone over and I missed all the really nice roses and in the meantime slugs, greenfly, and weeds have all been thriving. Really thriving. 

Over the last couple of months there have been no shortage of anxious calls on my part asking if everything has been watered and demanding rhubarb before it goes over which got the response 'yes I've watered' uttered in a tone of voice which suggested I'd better pray for rain (I did, it obliged) and 'I'm not bringing bloody rhubarb to work' interspersed with 'I might not

cut it properly'. What he did do was send me dozens of pictures of things looking there best which in it's way is even better than getting sent actual flowers and never fails to make me happy.

I was warned this weekend that there might be a bit of weeding to do, turned out there was, I've never seen the garden look so wild (or trodden on so many thistles - the lawn might need a bit of attention) but after two days of hacking and up-rooting things are sort of under control (apart from my back - my back doesn't feel like my own at all) and there's a young hay stack of weeds waiting to be disposed of. On the upside we managed to rescue a reasonable haul of cherries from the birds and wasps and I got my rhubarb with the promise of plenty more (it's also really nice to know that something other than lemon balm and the mint I don't like really thrives in that garden - it's a fairly solid clay which not everything appreciates).