May

The cut and chop back for winter continues, as the weather dictates the gardening activities. Plans for new borders are germinating, along with seeds in the glass-house, and there is a major project to erect a PERGOLA.

Saturday 13th May

We've had a week of worsening weather - ha! I was (happily?) at work earning $$$ to buy truckloads of compost and wood for the PERGOLA. Today I showed the true gardening spirit and gardened in drizzly rain.

Doomed Dahlias

I cut down the frosted dahlias - I do admire them, they are like the captain of the Titanic, hanging on until the last possible moment then going down with the ship...

Anyway, tomorrow I will finish digging the vege / potager and hunt out more bricks to lay the main paths. I have decided to incorporate a diagonal element. Then we will look at PERGOLA design.

Sunday 14th May

I didn't. Instead I cleared the house borders, cut back the catmint, and dug out a most peculiar little grass which was starting to creep. And speaking of grasses, there are "cute" seedlings of an unknown brightish green grass appearing everywhere. Is this a good thing?

Friday 19th May

I am home, sitting with my cats and dog.

Today's list is as follows :
• Finish digging potager?
• Weed Island Bed?
• Dig Frisbee Border?
• Widen other border?

The pros and cons are analysed as follows:

Pros / Cons
• Major earthworks - but can think about pergolas and brick paths
• Boring - ugly creepy weed in there
• Hmmm... popular spot for cat company
• Too vague - which border? How much wider? etc.

Later - I chose number 1. It has been a most satisfying day, six hours of very slow clearing, while I got back in touch with ME. I needed to feel the hours stretching out, to follow the sun's passage through a whole day. Then (six hours later) to get into clean apres-gardening clothes, reflect, feel proud, and fall asleep in a chair.

I didn't let anyone down today (I hope!) or annoy or disappoint anyone. You don't get those problems on cats-and-dog days.

Saturday 20th May

We went to visit a friend's pergola. Things didn't quite go as planned - Stephen kept losing interest and wandering off to talk to cats. I will have to appeal to the design engineer in him (hope this works). Then I poked around weeding near the house. There is so much to do - how come I imagined that winter shuts the garden down???

Sunday 21st May

Today I poked around in a gloomy mood in Middle Border, pulling out seedlings of gorse and broom. Like a princess I am fated to do this for the next 100 years, apparently - this always gets me thinking about New Zealand's early settlers who brought the stuff here...

A most unsatisfying day.