Imperfect Timing

I meant to enter the blogosphere six months ago and I am not convinced that this is a case of better late than never. Sometimes never is a very good thing. However here we are and here are some vibrant tulips to wake you up if you’re planning on wading further into this post.

They remind me that I never seem to do anything on time. Spring bulbs fester on the dining room table for months on end, only to be evicted somewhere less salubrious for the festive season, before guilt wins through and the poor bulbs are subjected to the now-or-never January planting frenzy.

Bare-root hedging plants which have been heeled-in for a month now, will shortly be lifted and placed in pots in the full knowledge that I will plant them at some inappropriate time later this year. Yes, I know I could plant them directly in the garden instead of pots, but what are the chances that the soil will be prepared in time? Happily, the plants seem to be quite accommodating. Bulbs flower late, but that in itself can be a novelty.

It is a similar lack-of-success story with diaries and journals. Every January without fail, I start a garden journal. Every February without fail, I stop. How do I know this? Because I found a decade of diaries when we moved to Norfolk. If some future generation were to dig up my garden journals (not that I have got round to creating a Blue Peter-style time capsule, obviously), they might reasonably conclude that we hibernate for eleven months of the year, having spent the whole of January rabidly planting bulbs whilst berating ourselves for being so disorganised.

Even a seasoned procrastinator like myself must get on with life eventually though and this year will be different. Admittedly, the journal (a red-spotted supermarket bargain) ceased to exist during the third week in January (early even by my pathetic standards), but this year I will create a new wildlife garden here and it will make a difference. I have already made a start. New trees have been planted (of which more next time) and mixed hedging is going in, even if not in a perfectly timely fashion.

I have high expectations for 2012 - even if it did start a couple of months before I was ready for it.

The Gardening Shoe