My burning month...

 Autumn colour.
red cornus

The leaves on the trees are starting to turn golden and red and fall to carpet the ground. This May will be a burning month as the fire ban has only just come off.

Saturday 5th May

I am pleased to say that I didn't do any gardening today, because it has been RAINING.

Sunday 6th May

We are off outside to have a giant burn up. It's still a bit drizzly out there, so there will be a lot of smoke (going straight up and not bugging any of our neighbours, who are pretty distant anyway). I will tend the fire for as long as my stamina and mood allows.

3 hours later...

The new Cornus trees over the water race are turning bright red. The Golden Hop is chopped down (there are scary running shoots the size of very fat fingers creeping over ground away from the stump it is supposed to cover). Half of my back path through the fence-line gums is cleared. It is all burnt.

Saturday 12th May

It has been drizzling all week, until 2 pm today, when patches of blue sky appeared and I raced outside with camera and secateurs. I created two barrowfuls of chopped back stuff. I need to do this every day. There are too many weeds, and there are daffodils to plant.

 This path leads from the seat to the glasshouse.
the new JAM Path

Sunday 13th May

During the 9 days in a row of drizzle we've had I've been reading garden books and my magazines. It is important to be able to see seeing the 'mass' and the 'void' in the garden. And Gazing Balls are becoming popular. Hmmm... Just when I thought I'd successfully avoided vistas...

Three hours later...

I am a legend! Another of the fabled Lost Paths of Mooseygan has been reclaimed. The wee path through the JAM Garden has been shifted 2 meters higher, closer to the water race. I've shifted a large species flax, rubbished a woody old Buddleia, and transplanted a swathe of black Mondo grass from the depths of the JAM Garden to the new path edge. Now I am inside, triumphant, trying to get some family interest going - maybe a guided tour - but everyone is suddenly very busy. Humph.

It's another example of the circle of life. The JAM Path is dead. Long live the JAM Path.

Two hours even later, I have broken through to the glass-house. It's rather like tunnelling in from both ends and then driving in the last spike, I guess. Both sons actually came out to check the path and say nice things (they had just remembered it was Mothers' Day). I could get a Gazing Ball. Hmmm...

 This red Cordyline started life in a patio pot.
past the glass-house

Saturday 19th May

Today I cleared four barrowfuls of stuff from the pond gardens. Then I did edges. These things need to be done.

Sunday 20th May

Four more barrowfuls, and finished edges. Lots of trees are dropping their leaves. Sometimes gardening is nice and basic.

Saturday 26th May

Aargh! - the first proper frost, and my Helichrysums are still outside in their pots. No wonder the trees have gone bare. What shall I do first today? I will get those Helichrysums organised in the glass-house. It's a funny time of year. First thing in the morning it's too cold outside even for cups of tea on garden seats. The gardener appears in tramping fleece and thermals and tries to soak up the ambience of the garden while moving briskly. Two hours later evidence of garden stripping is everywhere, as layers of warm clothing have been pulled off and abandoned to hang on various branches and fence posts. Around 3.30 pm the reverse happens, and the circle is complete. Hmm...

Anyway, I have some frost inspections to do, so enough rambling.

4.30 pm

There is no nicer way to end a pseudo-winter's day than raking gum leaves onto a garden fire, having seen the sun sink behind the trees. Today I've planted bulbs, and cleared barrowfuls of gum debris, pulled out juvenile dock weeds and planted lavenders in the new rose garden and two small red flaxes in the JAM Garden.

 Autumn leaves in the driveway.
Golden Autumn Driveway

Tomorrow I clear all the fallen pines from the Hump, and continue my front fence daffodil planting. My garden looks very scruffy and I feel it needs a solid week of maintenance. Still, it is nearly winter.

Sunday 27th May

Time for gardeners is definitely non-linear. One day it seems there's little to do - an hour's discrete pottering, maybe a superficial glass-house tidy-up, a small new garden to plan. The very next day there are bags of bulbs saying 'plant me NOW', hours of clearing and burning to do, raking and weeding... two solid weeks of hard work, with no time for patio dreaming...

No time for rambling on in diaries, either. I am off to clear the first load of pine rubbish from the Hump. While I'm in there I'll sort out an action plan to get ahead (eternal optimist).