Over the last week I’ve been in a sort of quarantine slump. My partner has gone back to work and his life has more or less returned to normal. My teenage daughter’s mood reflects my own; it’s hard to keep the team’s morale up when I feel somewhat despondent at this stage. We were both looking forward to visiting her grandma in America this summer. My cousin had a ticket booked to Ireland and planned to visit us from Florida in 2 weeks. (Instead, Aer Lingus has provided her with a voucher valid for 5 years).

A long summer stretches ahead of us since we are only in phase two (of 5) of easing the lockdown restrictions. Yesterday was the first day zero deaths were recorded in Ireland so that’s encouraging! It feels like running a marathon… we haven’t reached the finish line yet and need to keep pacing ourselves. (Well, I’ve only run a half-marathon so I can only compare it to that).

The garden continues to bring comfort while we’re still stuck at home. Christy’s family’s business Future Forests reopened to the public last Friday. We took a trip there on Sunday and it was really busy. I enjoyed seeing people happily shopping for plants while being mindful of social distancing. It started raining but no one cared. Strawberry plants, thyme, lavender, lupins, pansies, petunias, trailing fuchsias, lobelias, osteospermum, campanula, and rock cress all found a new home. I’ve only had energy to plant up the window boxes. Christy is going to create a rockery where we can make a new herb bed and plant a few suitable flowers. I’ll post photos of the newcomers another day.

I’m overdue for giving an update on the veggie patch. If you remember from my post Life Under Lockdown, we made raised beds a while back. The lettuces, peas, and spinach are doing well. The carrots and parsnips, however, are a disaster. Not all of the seeds sprouted, and the ones that did haven’t grown much. Maybe we should have sown them indoors. The brasicas were fine until the hens discovered them. They pretty much devoured them, although some are making a slow recovery. The green beans have been damaged by wind, slugs, and a little neglect during the heatwave. (I think I waited too long to water them). Overall we’ve had moderate success so far. The fruit bushes are all doing very well, and there’s a new beech hedge that is coming on!

Both the pink and peach roses have started blooming in the last couple of days. The potted lavender is also flowering. We have tons of wildflower seeds and tomato seeds that we’re probably too late to plant now, but we might give it a try anyway. Blessing like to help with everything which makes gardening a challenge at times. His idea of “weeding” is to pull the vegetables out of the ground! We’re working on plant identification… not easy for a 3 year old but he’s learning.

How are you doing in your part of the world? What’s helping you to cope with Covid19 restrictions or are things starting to get back to normal where you live?