Gardening Lesson

Today I began my gardening lessons, taught by James. I was really excited to get started, and it went well although I realise that I have so much to learn. James was very patient and directed me what to do, step by step. We needed to plant, in large pots, the marguerites and olive tree that we purchased in Yorkshire. This involved scrubbing a rather mossy terracotta pot for the olive tree before putting stones at the bottom for drainage and then filling it with a mix of soil and compost. The smaller ceramic pots for the marguerites were prepared in a similar way, and then there was much tamping down of the soft earth and watering. Then I did a bit of weeding so that I could plant the nepeta beside the lavender plants. Flora loved watching me and kept me company which was very sweet. I found the weeding to be very hard going and I was very slow compared to the swift and efficient James. However I did enjoy the experience much more than I thought I would, and I was very grubby so I had a bath before dinner. My grubbiness was not helped by the fact that my trousers had ridden rather low as I crouched over the weeds so James thought that it was amusing to drop leaves and small twigs down the back of my trousers as I worked!