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Garden Journal 2004

2004 is the very first year I am a semi-retired person. I will be able to garden every day of the year. Mooseys will be transformed into the most amazing, well cared-for garden - Eek! What happens if I get sick of it by March? We'll see...

January Week 1... Thu 1st Jan 2004: Happy New Year. What a week! Temperatures have been unusually high, too hot for sensible gardeners like me. Some plants have been suffering, too, their leaf edges badly burnt.
January Week 2... Thu 8th Jan 2004: Temperatures remain hot - the garden and the gardener both suffer. When will these hot days end?
January Week 3... Thu 15th Jan 2004: Ha! It's the third week of January. I'd usually be on holiday, if I wasn't semi-retired, so nothing feels different yet. I'm not bored yet with the garden, which is just as well.
January Week 4... Thu 22nd Jan 2004: Summer continues, and many of the roses are flowering again. I am trying to be a good responsible semi-retired summer gardener.
February Week 1... Sun 1st Feb 2004: February starts thankfully with drizzle and rain. My big February project is to hand weed about seven hundred Hazelnut trees in the orchard - but not in the rain, thanks very much!
February Week 2... Sat 7th Feb 2004: This is the week where my courgettes (or are they zucchinis?) get their revenge and turn overnight into obese wallowing marrows. My vegetable gardening esteem is at its lowest ebb...
February Week 3... Sat 14th Feb 2004: After a few days off I plan a gradual and gentle return to the pleasures of summer gardening this week. I wish to have a marrow-free week - I am going to concentrate on my roses.
February Week 4... Sat 21st Feb 2004: By this time last year I had returned to full time work. This year I am free from all that! I am so enjoying the garden as the summer days of February come to an end.
March Week 1... Mon 1st Mar 2004: March, March, March... Will you be the month of slow changes, with crisper mornings and cooler days - or will we get our best and most settled warm weather? We would really appreciate a late summer!
March Week 2... Mon 8th Mar 2004: Right. This week I'm going to become a quiet garden achiever. Edges, raking grass, clearing rubbish, weeding, burning, pruning... you name it, I intend to do some of it EACH DAY.
March Week 3... Sat 13th Mar 2004: Finally the autumn weather has settled - great sunshine, no wind - just perfect. The roses are flowering again everywhere in the garden, too - what a beautiful time of year to be semi-retired!
April Week 2... Wed 7th Apr 2004: Eek - the week has started with a rather cold wintry blast of weather. This means thermal gardening clothes, and mud-gardening, with the log fire burning slowly in the house.
March Week 4... Sat 20th Mar 2004: During the final days of March I am away from home and garden - I only have two or three days to enjoy the early autumn ambience of the Moosey garden (and the cricket).
End of March... Mon 29th Mar 2004: It's right at the end of March, and the paddocks and gardens need rain. I've been away, missing the Moosey garden. It really feels like Autumn.
April Week 1... Thu 1st Apr 2004: April is the month for the glowing flax hybrids - what beautiful colour tones they have. I'm going to have much more time to enjoy the Autumn changes in the garden this year.
Easter... Sun 11th Apr 2004: Easter usually marks the start of my much needed holiday from work, and I garden like a lunatic. This year, of course, I have much more time to sit, enjoy, and reflect, but old habits are hard to break...
April Week 3... Wed 14th Apr 2004: Visiting rooster and the hens are fed, the log fire is burning quietly, the sun is shining - it's the start of another week of beautiful Autumn ambience in paradise.
April Week 4... Mon 19th Apr 2004: The red and golden leaves of Autumn are slowly dropping to the ground, as the circle of gardening life continues - chop, weed, rake, wheel, burn, chop, weed, rake, wheel, burn...
End of April... Sun 25th Apr 2004: It's been a wonderful Autumn April in the garden - with calm warm weather, and lots of productive gardener energy. When is it going to get colder and nastier?
May Week 1... Sat 1st May 2004: The merry month of May has started. I'm hoping to have a good first week in the garden. It's time to seriously start cleaning up the perennials and putting the garden beds to bed, so to speak.
May Week 2... Sat 8th May 2004: The second week in May begins, and not even a token of winter as yet. Perhaps I should get organised in advance and move the half-hardy plant into the glass house - today? or maybe later this week?
May Week 3... Sat 15th May 2004: After five wet days the feel of the garden has changed. Most of the autumn leaves have now fallen - perhaps everything is starting to shut down for winter.
May Week 4... Sat 22nd May 2004: Still we haven't had a frost, and still all my half hardy plants are scattered around the garden in their pots. Let's hope that the mild late autumn weather lasts another week!
End of May... Sat 29th May 2004: There are three days left in May. There should be enough time to trim, chop, and burn all the Moosey garden rubbish - and enough gardening activity to write about!
June Week 1... Wed 2nd Jun 2004: Where's winter? Where are the frosts? The great Moosey garden clean-up continues with remarkably mild weather. There are no excuses for anything to stay messy - except possibly the glass-house.
June Queen's Birthday... Sat 5th Jun 2004: It's New Zealand's long winter weekend - Queen's Birthday, and bare root roses are on sale in the supermarket - so immediately I have plans for a huge new rose garden behind the pond. I am far too random - only severe rain will bring me to my senses.
June Week 2... Sat 12th Jun 2004: Hmm... It's now the second weekend in June - blue skies are forecast, with light frosts. These are perfect days to continue the great winter garden clean-up.
June Week 3... Tue 15th Jun 2004: Still the weather is calm and settled, even if only luke-warm. It's nearly the shortest day - good gardeners must get out there and take full advantage of conditions. Maybe I will finish my great winter clean-up before real winter weather strikes!
June Mid-Winter... Sat 19th Jun 2004: New Zealand is approaching the shortest day, and Moosey the Intrepid All-Weather Winter Gardener is still going strong! Nothing can stop her as she rakes, clears, chops, weeds, and burns...
June Week 4... Sat 26th Jun 2004: I try to be a patient, realistic gardener, but I find myself longing for the Moosey gardens to once again be full of fat greenery, luscious roses, colour and warmth. Could I escape and visit a summer garden somewhere? Hmm...
July Week 2... Mon 5th Jul 2004: July continues with beautiful winter weather, and I am semi-relaxing after a busy clearing and burning weekend. Exciting news - I am experimenting with a small wriggling stream through the Wattle Woods.
July Week 1... Thu 1st Jul 2004: It's July already, and so the second half of my gardening year begins - in brilliant warm sunshine! How long can this mild weather last?
July End of Week 2... Thu 8th Jul 2004: I am still busy clearing and burning, and still the weather stays fine. In two days time I will be on holiday in Sydney - I'd like some gentle rain on the garden while I'm away! Hopefully the early Camellias will be flowering when I return.
July Week 3... Sun 18th Jul 2004: I'm back! - after a flax-free (i.e. New Zealand garden-free) week spent on holiday in Sydney. Hmm... I wonder what's changed in the garden.
Sydney Holiday 1 - The City... Mon 19th Jul 2004: We spent some July time in Sydney on holiday from the garden. Naturally I kept up a diary - here are some of my scribblings about staying in the city...
Sydney Holiday 2 - The Country... Mon 19th Jul 2004: Our rural New South Wales country adventure starts in a rental car stuffed with food and tramping clothes, zooming over a toll road and into the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.
July Week 4... Sat 24th Jul 2004: What should I do first in the garden this weekend? Start organising and planting my seeds for spring? Continue pruning the roses? Finish clearing the mess out of the Hump? Take more photographs of the baby pink Camellia?
July End of Week 4... Tue 27th Jul 2004: There are still five gardening days left in July, and lots of gardening work to do and to write about. So I am allowed to start a new page (things I haven't yet done from Sunday's list can now be subtly forgotten, hee hee).
August Week 1... Sun 1st Aug 2004: The word august means serious and dignified - this is how I must approach my garden in August. I must work throughout the whole garden area, and I must stop moaning about being tired.
August Week 2... Sat 7th Aug 2004: This week I'm purchasing and planting a lot of New Zealand native plants for a new garden area - just as the weather is turning wintry. Oh well - at least I should end the week with a clean and tidy glass-house filled up with seed trays.
August Week 3... Fri 13th Aug 2004: I think the Olympics start this weekend. Olympic gardening is what I need to be doing - perhaps a gold medal as a reward for effort? Let's see... I have New Zealand natives to plant, streams to organise, beds to weed, leaves to rake...
August Week 4... Thu 26th Aug 2004: Right - this weekend ALL the Moosey roses will be pruned. And ALL the garden beds will be weeded. And we are going to look at the parents of our proposed new puppy - oops, sorry Taj-Dog!
End of August... Tue 31st Aug 2004: I still haven't finished my rose pruning. And the weather has finally decided to turn wintry - rain, sleet, light dustings of snow, and a chill wind from the deep south. Humph...
September Week 1... Sun 5th Sep 2004: The Moosey garden is pleased to welcome SPRING. This first spring week I promise not to mention any cold weather. I will garden every day with new life and renewed energy. And I will not tread on any emerging spring bulbs.
My Birthday Week... Sat 11th Sep 2004: It's my birthday week. I am full of spring strength - I have lots of ideas for the slowly awakening Moosey Spring Garden. The daffodils are certainly waking up - everywhere there are new types flowering. I love spring!
September Week 3... Thu 16th Sep 2004: Slow down, September! It only takes a few warm days and the Moosey garden turns into a combined Daffodil and Weed Festival. This week I am determined to find the hoe - and use it!
More September Week 3... Tue 21st Sep 2004: This spring is just magical - for the first time I have enough room in my life to see everything that's happening in the garden - like the first rhododendron (red) starting to flower, and the measured succession of prunus trees in blossom.
September Week 4... Sat 25th Sep 2004: This week I seem to be forever weeding my garden and tripping over daffodils. I can never remember seeing so many - of either! It's the spring equinox and our daylight saving starts in three weeks! Eek!
End of September... Thu 30th Sep 2004: The blossom trees continue to flower, the lawns are lush and green, and I am steaming through the Hump garden area, trying to clean it all up by the end of September. I love having more time for my garden - this could become an obsession!
October Week 1... Wed 6th Oct 2004: Aargh! A new month already, and the garden is promising to burst into more life. Will I ever be able to stop weeding - just for one week? What colours will the new rhododendrons be? Questions, questions...
October Week 2... Sun 10th Oct 2004: The Moosey Garden Tenth Anniversary month continues with sunshine, more blossom, tulips flowering, and all other garden plants growing well. The extremely free-ranging rooster and hens have not yet pecked at anything important...
October End of Week 2... Sat 16th Oct 2004: I sense that the mid-spring garden is almost ready to unleash a storm of green growth and colour. I am calmly continuing my weeding and doing daily checks of the new rhododendrons - what colours will their flowers be?
October Week 3... Wed 20th Oct 2004: Everything in the garden is growing greener by the hour! I’m afraid to even be lazy for an afternoon in case I miss some new blossom, some sudden flowering. I am still sick of weeding, though - I'd rather be buying in new plants...
October Week 4... Mon 25th Oct 2004: Suddenly the Moosey Garden has sprung into serious growth action. The aquilegias are flowering, there are new rhododendron colours everywhere, and replacement weeds have filled all the gaps in the soil (which were only weeded last week). Hmm...
End of October... Sun 31st Oct 2004: The garden is looking very beautiful - perhaps I am a successful gardener after all! I love the shape of the borders, I love seeing the first roses, and I love my new rhododendrons - even if they are a little small.
November Week 1... Fri 5th Nov 2004: The bath (outdoors variety) is full of stubby green flaxes, and I have six hebes and six roses in pots - all fresh and ready for a long country retirement in the Moosey Garden. Will this stop me spending hard-earned MONEY at the nursery? We'll see...
November Week 2... Mon 8th Nov 2004: I wish garden-time would go a little slower! Now the roses have started to bloom, and there is flower colour everywhere. I’m in a bit of a gardening panic, as I keep discovering new plants, and far too many weeds.
November End of Week 2... Tue 16th Nov 2004: The roses are now flowering everywhere. And serious systematic watering of the garden is firmly in place - how short the spring growing season has been!
November Week 3... Thu 18th Nov 2004: I'm back! A proper early summer gardening week looms, with no financial distractions. Roses, rhododendrons, irises galore - there are brilliant flower displays in every part of the garden.
November End of Week 3... Sat 20th Nov 2004: Now that I’m back gardening (and writing) I have far too much to talk about! By the end of this week I must have planted out my annuals and the new roses. I must work, work, work - and try not to mulch my new (ahem - borrowed) cricket radio.
November Week 4... Tue 23rd Nov 2004: The Moosey roses are in full flower, and they fill the garden with colour and perfume (naturally they also fill the pages of this journal). Cross fingers - there are few aphids. I love my early summer garden - there is no place I would rather be.
November End of Week 4 ... Tue 30th Nov 2004: More and more roses climb, sprawl and scramble through the Moosey garden. Summer must be here - I’m watering every day and I’m busy planting all my flowering summer annuals. And I just love all the roses!
December Week 1... Fri 3rd Dec 2004: Summer gardening feels different - there’s a greater sense of partnership between person and garden. All my hard work weeding and planting has paid off! The Moosey gardens are actually looking really good!
December End of Week 1... Mon 6th Dec 2004: So much to say - about so little - that is, if the Grand Moosey Gardening Experience can ever be dismissed as little. In fact, on a good day (mentally, that is) the garden is far too small - perhaps some summer digging?
December Week 2... Fri 10th Dec 2004: The December summer rose show is still filling the garden with colour and warmth. All my hostas have expanded, and the first summer shrubs are flowering. Yippee!
December End of Week 2... Mon 13th Dec 2004: The pond should be the perfect place for mellow summer gardening - gentle ripples on the water, ducks floating serenely by. Pity about the blustery gales, cold rain, and Rusty the new puppy ‘helping’ me dig (and trying to chase off the ducks).
December Week 3... Fri 17th Dec 2004: Summer ambience in the garden is more than a gigantic rose show - it needs the lawns mown, all the edges of the garden borders neatly clipped, the paths through the gardens cleared, all the garden seats and benches fully functional...
December End of Week 3... Mon 20th Dec 2004: This pre-Christmas weather has not been gardener-friendly - so the extended Moosey animal family tries to settle down indoors (Rusty the new puppy, the two new kittens, plus the existing cats and the old deaf dog).
December Christmas Week... Wed 22nd Dec 2004: Christmas week - please can we have some sunny summer weather? The garden is enjoying all the rain, but the gardener isn't - some people are never satisfied!
December Week 4... Fri 24th Dec 2004: Christmas is nearly here - the garden is full of wet roses, and the house is full of new animals (kittens and a puppy). I've finally got the Christmas tree - naturally, it's alive, in potting mix.
December Christmas... Mon 27th Dec 2004: Merry Christmas. It’s Christmas day in the Moosey Garden and gentle Christmas rain is falling. My roses are soggy, but the vegetable garden is the best ever, thanks to nature’s grand watering scheme.
December End of Week 4... Thu 30th Dec 2004: Summer temperatures have finally arrived - the Moosey lawns are mown, the edges are trimmed, and the garden seats are ready to embrace holiday readers. The head gardener has the usual problems - should she buy in more plants? Perhaps more roses?
December New Years Eve... Fri 31st Dec 2004: The gardening year has drawn to a close. It's been the most colourful year ever, filled with incredible flower and foliage experiences. With all the time spent in the garden I should be a much wiser gardener...