Out of control?

Runner bean

In the 2 weeks since I last had a good walk about the garden and especially after the garden services have skipped a week of weeding everything feels SO out of control!! I have drastically underestimated the space needed by tomatoes, the gourds have started growing into everything and down the gabion walls and the lettuces are in desperate need of contributing to the compost heap. One thing I also know is that I won't ever plant plectranthus (the green-grey groundcover variety) in a garden ever again! Unless there's a large infertile slope or rockery I wish to cover up quickly. They are almost an invader!! I have trimmed them back 3 times already in the past 2 months! I don't even bother with secateurs I just rip big chunks of them out with a twist of the hand and chuck them in a far-away corner... the problem is they just don't die, they start growing roots and settle themselves in the new spot. I think I will slowly but surely remove all of them from the back garden completely, they're quite a pest with all the water we're giving the young, more tender plants. I think I will remove all the overgrown ones and throw them on the side of our garden where there's no sprinklers, hopefully they will die then and provide a bit of mulch?

I will also have to seriously work through the veggie patch! The rocket's taking over, the celery is looking dire and I think everything could do with a good trim or clearing out! I think I'll start up some new seeds and then plant them out when there's space after the cleanup. I must admit: this gardening project is much harden than I imagined it would be! It requires more than just a few hours a week and I haven't even given it that much attention since Jenni arrived. So I guess it's not that difficult, but you can't leave it unsupervised for more than a few days!! I will have to rescue the tomatoes and maybe trim them back a little because my whole little "support" I built has tumbled over under their weight... monster tomatoes!

 Scooby snack... ?

Jenni is doing very well, she just doesn't sit still enough anymore to get a decent picture of her!! :P And I'm still in search of a bigger crate for her - shame, she squeezes herself into the cat's small one, just shows you how much she loves sleeping in a quiet, dark little corner :) I took her for her first vet visit last Friday and she was super, didn't even notice the vaccination and nearly ate the deworming tablet by herself. The only trouble is that she still gets car-sick easily, unless I drive 30km/h... then she's ok. So I will have to put some effort into that every day now to get her used to travelling faster. Otherwise we will never be able to take her anywhere.

Shala (the horse) has also been a little neglected. I worked her a little yesterday and she's revving to go! I hope to start riding her regularly when my month of leave starts. I've decided to take some time off to train the dog, ride the horse, attend the jungle-garden, bake cake ;) etc. The house is now very almost completed and I will be able to enjoy some real holiday, doing only the things I like :) I hope it will be as fabulous as I think!