Serious growth...

Suddenly - terribly, and very purposefully - the Moosey Garden has sprung into serious growth action. The aquilegias are flowering, there are new rhododendron colours everywhere, and replacement weeds have generously filled all the gaps in the soil (which were only weeded last week). Hmm...

Saturday 23rd October

Aargh! For two beautiful, warm days I have been earning money - and the garden has just kept on growing without me - funny that! The Wattle Woods stream has kept on flowing (and flooding just a little bit), the seedlings in the glasshouse have tripled in size (I watered them!), and out with a puff of pale pink the Clematis and the first aquilegias have appeared.

 A lovely apricot colour.
New Rhododendron

Of course the pond paddock blossom trees are in full blossom, so the view across from the house to the pond paddock is rather frothy and fluffy. And I must mention the beautiful well mown lawns...

 These daisies self-seed every spring and every autumn.
Annual White Daisies

More news on the Moosey Wildlife - the new puppy comes to live with us at the end of November, and we have named him Rusty. The resident duck pair is back, timid as usual - will we ever see them again after the puppy arrives? How long can a trio of cats sulk for? Eek! There will have to be much bribing with gourmet food treats. And how long will the old dog - well - survive?

 The silliest of my silly birds.
White Hen

A Sitting Hen...

Today I have much to do. White hen is trying to sit on her egg nest (from which I have been collecting an egg a day) and I will need to intervene. I need to burn my pile of rubbish. I could even go round the garden tidying up after the daffodils (I sort of tie them loosely). More pink things are breaking into flower (e.g. the rhododendrons down the driveway). I love pink - especially when the lawns are lush and green and freshly mown!

Seedlings need pricking out, and the new trailer could be christened by getting a load of potting mix, rather than the less cost-effective bags. I will also plant more vegetables this weekend - it is the traditional Canterbury vegetable-planting weekend, when all the wise old-man gardeners put in their carrots and tomatoes.

It is a joy to be back properly in the garden - even an absence of two full days is refreshing and mentally invigorating. Cross fingers - wonder how long this energy will last!

Mid-Day

Things are terrible out there! I have been away for two days, and in my absence there is weed chaos and the Moosey Rhododendron Festival has started. Some of the new rhododendrons are a bit tentative, others are really impressive. Eek! This is the garden equivalent of 'A Watched Pot Never Boils' - I have been checking them for days now!

 With the water race in the background.
Lilac Rhododendron

But, on the positive side, I have planted my vegetable garden - I have even remembered to plant the garlic cloves. If there is a frost in the next two weeks the small tomato plants will need protection. All that is left is a small row-space for peas (snack food for December).

Pondering About Time...

I don't understand why time away from the garden has a different impact than time spent in it.

 Early to flower.
Canary Bird Rose

Much Later...

I bought a trailer-load of potting mix - trouble is I don't have anywhere to dump it, nor can I find enough bags to fill. But I've worked in the glass-house potting up cuttings of variegated pelargoniums, as well as weeding and doing some edges. I have discovered all sorts of new things - more blue irises, the Choisya shrubs flowering, the Canary Bird rose also. Yippee! The first rose of - summer?

Sunday 24th October

I think I can trick myself out of a repeat of yesterday's garden panic and despair by doing all the edges. This small cosmetic tinkering has a profound effect on how the Moosey garden generally looks. Also my spectacles are banished from the garden (yesterday I made the mistake of wearing them while garden wandering) - today I'll settle for fuzzy vision!

Anyway, I'm off outside to create edge-order in the house gardens. Then I'll do a spot of weeding in the house gardens. Then I'll come inside for breakfast! Such dedication!

 Choisya on the left and the Japanese Flowering Cherry to the right.
Blossom in the Pond Paddock

Mid-Afternoon

Hopeless! Whose idea was it to buy a trailer-load of potting mix? One thousand litres - one cubic metre - of potting mix? And then have to get this rather large amount into bags? Hmm... Luckily Stephen has wielded the shovel - all I had to do was keep the bags open. It's been hot, too, and I have come inside sulking - I am far too tired to do anything more. Sorry.

 One of my lovely pink flowering cherries.
Blossom in the Driveway

Monday 25th October

Right! What shall I do first today? Spend an hour in the glass-house in a potting frenzy? It's time the over-wintered plants were repotted (see - I might have a use for all that mix after all!) and brought back to grace the house decking and patios. I have two rather seedy looking (in a gardening sense) yellow Stipa grasses to plant - if they go by the water race will a million seedlings be unleashed down-stream and cause environmental havoc? A sort of pay-back for the Gunnera seedlings which arrive yearly from up-stream?

I seem to be in a much better mood. The first roses (yellow Canary Bird and Mutabilis) are flowering. I am wracked with guilt regarding the white hen, who is doggedly (strange adjective) incubating an egg-shaped stone in the Stables Garden underneath a large flax. Yesterday I thought I heard two pheasants in the Hump. Oh well - just wait until the new puppy comes!

Mid-Day

I have removed the stone from underneath my broody white hen - if she now wishes to starve herself sitting on nothing, then so be it - I am not responsible. I have been potting (humph), with Jerome the cat curled up on the dusty floor of the glass-house, and the resident bellbird singing away outside (answered each time by the ridiculous crowing rooster). One hundred amplified bellbirds all singing different songs would sound better than one ear-piercing rooster crowing. There is also now a resident visiting pigeon. Do we have new neighbours who are bird fanciers?

I've spied a few more blue irises, and the house gardens are busy celebrating the week of the aquilegia. Over the water race the new rhododendrons are slowly unfurling the oddest coloured flowers. This is most exciting. The new stream is flowing a little slowly - I will need to be more vigilant. Thus a gentle day of everything and nothing unfolds in the Moosey garden.