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Garden Journal 2006

Garden journal 2006

It's quite simple, really. I am still here. My garden is still here. I am still obsessively gardening. And every day, faithfully, I am writing all about it in my journal!

The year 2006 is destined to be the Year of the Moosey Forum. I have other plans, too - in fact, I thought of expanding the journal entries to daily pages, with a detailed resume of each week in the garden... Just kidding!

The Moosey Garden must have finished expanding, though, as there are few sensible areas left to dig. Perhaps my serious garden plans for 2006 need to be on a grander scale - a second pond, an arboretum, that sort of thing. Capability Moosey could convert the back paddock into a park...

January Week 1... Tue 3rd Jan 2006: Happy New Year from Mooseys Country Garden - the happy home of four mature cats, two kittens, one dog, a shrieking fence-line pheasant and a bleating super-sized pet lamb called Fred.
January End of Week 1... Fri 6th Jan 2006: This is terrible! I am feeling lazy, and have therefore decided there isn't much to do in the garden at this time of year. Absolute nonsense - what about the weeds? Where is my New Year's motivation? Quick - I need some gardening goals for 2006!
January Week 2... Sun 8th Jan 2006: The Manly Garden Help might be coming to the Moosey Country Garden this very week. Desperately searching for suitable garden tasks, I have finally thought of one - laying weed-mat and stones on the main Dog-Path.
January Week 2 - More... Thu 12th Jan 2006: Aargh! The very day that the Manly Garden Help is due, it rains, steadily. An anti-climax for the anxious head gardener, but the garden will happily wait until tomorrow. Seems a pity, though - all that fresh, home baking going to waste...
January End of Week 2... Sat 14th Jan 2006: Armed with my Christmas present (not the Manly Garden Help, rather my scary book on Pruning), I am staring at the new Moosey Wisteria on the house pergola. Am I possibly a 'dedicated grower'? If so, then a supreme gardening challenge awaits.
January Week 3... Tue 17th Jan 2006: The third week of January, high summer in the messy Moosey Garden - I could garden for five hours every day, and still find things needing to be done. Like weeding, and trimming edges, and rescuing self sown seedlings from the middle of paths...
January Week 3 - More... Fri 20th Jan 2006: More serious nor-west winds blew throughout the night - my house lawns, which were raked, watered and freshly mown yesterday are once more covered with gum tree leaves and strips of bark. Aargh! No wonder I've never tried to have a 'real' lawn!
January Week 4... Wed 25th Jan 2006: It's a beautiful fresh summer morning. So where is my gardening optimism? And where is my World Garden Touring optimism? I wish I was more consistent - like my Pittosporums, for example, who never change their attitude to life and the garden.
January Week 4 - More... Sat 28th Jan 2006: Many of the the Moosey roses are back in the blooming business, bringing colour patches (largely unappreciated) to the mid-summer garden. The sun is so strong, the light is so bright! I wish the house lawns looked better...
End of January... Tue 31st Jan 2006: Water, weeds, wind, roses, and beautiful summer sunshine - these are some of the ingredients of the Moosey January garden. There are just a few more days left in January to stir the gardening pot!
February Week 1... Fri 3rd Feb 2006: February is the month where I remember about the dahlias, wonder about the tomatoes, and despair of the house lawns. I also become anti-eucalyptus-gum-tree and wonder if an old-lady gardener can learn to use the chainsaw...
February Week 1 - More... Mon 6th Feb 2006: I love these days of summer freedom - perhaps being a random gardener is a good thing. Being a wise and sensible gardener would be nice as well!
February Week 2... Sat 11th Feb 2006: It's already the second week of February, and I think the garden is in better shape than usual, for this scruffy time of year. The rubbish piles on the fence-line are certainly bigger!
February End of Week 2... Tue 14th Feb 2006: I am definitely a not-rich (and non-famous) gardener, but am wondering why I spend time and energy working at my part-time job. My garden needs me full-time, and this weekend has felt like a giant catch-up. Hmm... I wonder...
February Week 3... Mon 20th Feb 2006: This week I have hardly spent any quality time in my scruffy garden. The lawns look dreadful, and there are gum tree leaves everywhere. I have huge plans for a buying frenzy at the Botanical Gardens plant sale tomorrow...
February Week 4... Tue 28th Feb 2006: Next Friday I will become a totally committed, consistently on-task full-time gardener. Now I can definitely sweep the patios each morning. Cat company! Dog company! Lots more gardening! Lots less money - oops!
March Week 1... Sat 4th Mar 2006: March is going to be interesting, different, and hopefully lovely, as I get used to being a totally full-time gardener. Cross fingers that my journal ramblings don't get too boring...
March End of Week 1... Tue 7th Mar 2006: I don't have to go in to work ever again. What will I do if it rains for a week? I am going to join the local garden club, and the local walking club...
March Week 2... Mon 13th Mar 2006: Swimming, bicycling, tramping, reading, Brahms piano, cricket watching, Garden Club... Guess I'd better save some time for the Moosey Gardening. I am beginning to enjoy my new life very much!
March Week 3... Sat 18th Mar 2006: So starts the third week of my transplanting as a full-time gardener. I have more compost to spread, tramping legs to stretch gently, new friends, and lots of ideas from the Garden Club outing...
March End of Week 3... Tue 21st Mar 2006: I love my garden! I am so much enjoying being in it. It's a pity one can't retire every week, just to experience this lovely, head-spinning feeling. Hee hee - lots more gardening, lots more to write about...
March Week 4... Sun 26th Mar 2006: March is definitely marching on towards autumn! There are already some golden-yellow leaves on the birch trees, and the crab apples are starting to ripen. My birds will enjoy feasting on them!
March End Week 4... Fri 31st Mar 2006: My end-of-March journal ramblings will be rather smoky, with hopefully many flames of inspiration leaping forth. In translation - the fire ban is removed, and burning is the issue of the day! Every day!
April Week 1... Mon 3rd Apr 2006: April. Aargh! The slow burning, clearing rubbish month when the garden settles - no wind, gentle colour changes, and the Moosey lawns go green again. Hurray for my foliage plants!
April Week 2... Sun 9th Apr 2006: April is zooming past - think of all the garden cleaning-up I still have to do! There are perennials to trim down, Pittosporums to 'prune' (well, that's what I call it), and dry grass to rake up...
April Week 2 - More... Thu 13th Apr 2006: Inspired by Jack's Autumn pictures in the forum, I am off into my garden with my own eyes wide open. When I see pockets of golden and red colour from shrubs and trees, I am going to stop, look, marvel, and enjoy - maybe even photograph!
April - Easter... Mon 17th Apr 2006: Happy Easter to the Moosey Garden, which is waiting patiently. What will happen first? Perhaps the Head Gardener will plant all the bargains she's brought back from the Big Nursery Sale...
April Week 3... Thu 20th Apr 2006: The Easter weekend is now officially over, and I am left with huge numbers of sale plants to organise. Pot or garden? Perhaps a little bit of both! And where shall I plant my new hostas?
April Week 4... Tue 25th Apr 2006: We are still getting delightfully warm days. This must be very confusing for the autumn leaves - and the roses, many of which are furiously building new buds for future flowering. Do they think they're winter roses? Hmm...
April End Week 4... Sun 30th Apr 2006: Four more April days to go. Eek! Ironic that I can now clearly remember things I should have done at the beginning of the month, like sowing my autumn-winter seeds. Is it too late? Hmm...
May Week 1... Thu 4th May 2006: Eek! May has crept up on an unsuspecting gardener and bitten her on the behind. That sounds indelicate - perhaps it tapped her on the shoulder as she gently raked up the autumn leaves?
May End Week 1... Sun 7th May 2006: My first May weekend - I have huge plans, a garden task list longer than an allotment gardener's hoe - and the promise of good weather. How many days until my holiday? Eek!
May Week 2... Sat 13th May 2006: One pre-holiday May week is left in which to completely organise my gardening life. Ha! Show me a garden that is actually finished - only in the gardener's dreams!
May Week 3... Sun 21st May 2006: Blast the weather! And Happy Mothers' Day - that's officially for all New Zealand mothers, at least! Today was to be my big mulching day. That is, until the southerly - rain, cold - struck at first light this morning.
My Holiday Part One... Tue 23rd May 2006: Moosey is let loose in London. Here is my first holiday journal, full of sightings of red cordylines and London pigeons - and photographs of the London rain. Oh well, I guess it's good for the gardens...
My Holiday Part Two... Fri 26th May 2006: My lovely holiday continues. I go to North Devon for some English countryside - and then zoom under the English Channel on a train to Belgium. Just a little rain... falling from the skies...
My Holiday Part Three... Tue 30th May 2006: I love visiting gardens right across the other side of the world! Everything here is so green, and light. It's still raining, but my New Zealand wet weather parka certainly does the business...
June Week 1... Sun 4th Jun 2006: I am back home, down in the winter depths of the southern hemisphere. Nothing has changed much in my absense, and there's quite a lot more mulching to do. My plants are remarkably colourful, considering it's winter.
June End Week 1... Tue 6th Jun 2006: I will not be intimidated by cold southerly rain forecast, followed by snow to 400 meters. I am inspired, recently returned from visiting pre-summer gardens in England and Brussels. Should it snow I will retire to the glasshouse.
June Week 2... Mon 12th Jun 2006: The Welcome Garden becomes much more welcoming, as I fill the car more than once with New Zealand Native plants from the nursery. My plans to sneakily remove all the recycled newspaper piles in my road are thankfully put on hold - maturity has kicked in!
June Snow... Fri 16th Jun 2006: The power did indeed go off, for a day and a half. The Moosey garden is completely snow-bound, with much visible damage. The head gardener is partially house-bound, making brave forays outside to uncover prized invisible flaxes. She is not happy!
June Week 3... Tue 20th Jun 2006: This morning, five days after the snow storm, I venture into the Wattle Woods for my first damage evaluation report. Aargh! I have been an extremely simple post-snow gardening soul - one hand-saw, one pair of gloves, one dog, one gardener...
June Week 4... Wed 28th Jun 2006: I could easily lose confidence in being a New Zealand four seasons gardener - the weather continues cold, snowy, stuck in a pattern of southerly cold fronts. Perhaps I could turn to conifers for consolation...
End of June... Fri 30th Jun 2006: Right. Back to basics. No sulking. No daytime TV watching re-runs of James Bond movies. No feeling sorry for self. Much slashing of overgrown flaxes. Much stacking of logs, and much burning. Much sniffing and sneezing? Maybe - but no moaning!
July Week 1... Tue 4th Jul 2006: I'm apres-gardening - the Moosey Office is nice and cosy warm, the Moosey body is clean, and the Moosey hair is gleaming and smoke-free. Ha! Hello to July, a new month, a new start. The days are getting longer! Summer is coming! Slowly, slowly...
July Week 2... Sun 9th Jul 2006: After indifferent weather this week, the weekend promises to be sunny! I'm going to finish the Wattle Woods clean-up, and then look critically at the new garden area with pen and paper in hand. I can feel a list of new plants!
July Week 2 - More... Tue 11th Jul 2006: Finally my winter gardening sulks seem to be over. My old optimism is back, and my head is full of plans for new, improved planting schemes. Thank you, snow, for kicking me out of complacency and garden laziness. But please, no more this winter!
July Week 3... Sun 16th Jul 2006: A few more tree branches to cut up, and remove. A few more squashed flaxes to remove (with kitchen steak knife and wood-shed axe). A few more unwanted monster grasses to dig out. Surely soon I can spend some time (and money) on new plants...
July Week 3 - More... Thu 20th Jul 2006: With huge energy output I am racing through wintry July, doing an extremely early and optimistic spring-clean. If you are a fat flattened flax - beware! Be very afraid, as I continue rejuvenating older areas in the garden.
July Week 4... Sun 23rd Jul 2006: I am thinking of starting a second hand flax shop. Every time I successfully cut an oversized, flattened Phormium down I find two more. Has a troupe of circus elephants been sneakily sitting on my flaxes? That's what they look like...
July Week 4 - More... Thu 27th Jul 2006: Another July week scuttles past, and I have more new plans... My super-garden-energy phase has lasted for ages. And yes! There is much visible improvement in the Moosey winter garden. If you squint and look carefully - over there - over there...
End of July... Sun 30th Jul 2006: I am really trying to give my garden all the detailed care and attention it's missed out on. For every task I complete I seem to unearth four more which should have been done years ago. Humph...
August Week 1... Thu 3rd Aug 2006: Apart from sulking about my sore hands (caused by over enthusiastic weeding) I am ready to take on the August garden, whatever the weather - as long as there isn't another snow storm! Big hint - some spring flowers would be nice!
August Week 1 - More... Sun 6th Aug 2006: I am in a shrubby mood. I could visit the nursery every three weeks, and buy two of the nicest shrubs in flower, thus expanding my garden selection, and guaranteeing more year-round colour... Hmm...
August Week 2... Wed 9th Aug 2006: In two gardening days time we fly out to Savai'i, the big island of Samoa. My floating shirts, tropical summer skirts and board shorts are ready. Goodbye, thermal underwear, woolly socks, and weather-proof winter vests!
August Week 3... Sun 20th Aug 2006: Yippee! I am back! That is, the grubby, winter gardening version of me. The tropical island version, she of the flowing turquoise cotton shirts and funky beach board shorts, lives on in a large scribbly notebook labeled 'My Samoan Holiday'.
Samoa - Part One... Wed 9th Aug 2006: Our long awaited holiday to Samoa - I have no idea what to expect. I've even left the Lonely Planet Guide at home, sadly unread. I've done no botanical research - oops! Will this be a nice holiday for an obsessive gardener?
Samoa - Part Two... Fri 11th Aug 2006: A tropical island paradise, living on the beach with coconut palms swishing and murmuring in the warm breeze. Ha! What a pleasant life! I have hardly had time to think about the Moosey garden in the depths of winter!
Samoa - Part Three... Sun 13th Aug 2006: Ooops. I am starting to write long lists in my Samoan holiday journal, concerning my garden back home. Just a few, nothing too serious. And I miss the animals - I wonder if the cats and the dog would like it here? Their fur is far too thick...
August Week 4... Thu 24th Aug 2006: It's wonderful to see tiny featherlight touches of spring in my garden, though the daffodils are still very sluggish - that's a very poor choice of adjective for a gardener!
August Week 4 - More... Sun 27th Aug 2006: I have hopeful feelings that spring is nearly here. Our lambs are due, and finally there are tiny bursts of daffodil yellow. Things in the garden just feel different. And I've spied the first blossom. Yippee!
End of August... Tue 29th Aug 2006: Animal developments - we meet the new hens and rooster who are coming to live at Mooseys. And one of the new merino lambs has a rough start - welcome to Hura, this year's pet lamb.
September Week 1... Mon 4th Sep 2006: Spring officially starts in New Zealand on the 1st September. I've read that in England it's three weeks later. That must mean that we get much warmer spring weather - and better gardening weather in general?
September Week 2... Sat 9th Sep 2006: Early cherry blossom is blossoming, spring blooms are blooming - how about some good quality gardening energy? Perhaps a quick spurt of shrub buying would help. This will be followed by frenetic hole-digging, and much bucketing of water...
September Week 2 - More... Mon 11th Sep 2006: New plants - the gift that goes on giving! My new trees are in, my new shrubs are - almost in, my new roses are - next to go in. Our new poultry arrives any day now, and we are still waiting for more new lambs.
September Week 3... Sun 17th Sep 2006: The spring garden gets more lovely each day - I love this time of year! The daffodils are now in full bloom, and the blue grape hyacinths are starting to flower - these blues and yellows are echoed in my pansy flowers. Simply beautiful!
September Week 3 - More... Thu 21st Sep 2006: I can't believe how busy I've been in the garden these last spring weeks. Typical question to retired lady gardener - But what do you do with yourself all day?
September Week 4... Mon 25th Sep 2006: Spring is accelerating - whatever happened to the constant, boring ticking of time? And the number of garden things I'm finding to do each day is increasing exponentially, as is my happiness! Ha! Busy women should make brilliant gardeners.
September Week 4 - More... Sat 30th Sep 2006: There is so much spring growth now in the garden, with more and more bursts of colour from shrubs and flowers. And there are so many things that I should be doing... Oops.
October Week 1... Tue 3rd Oct 2006: Hello, October. Welcome to my spring garden. You've arrived - that was quick! Come this way - don't be shy. My plants and I have been expecting you...
October Week 1 - More... Sat 7th Oct 2006: The first October week ends with some rather nippy weather. Rain, of course, is always good for the garden and bad for the gardener - for this gardener, at least, who does not fancy being muddy and cold.
October Week 2... Tue 10th Oct 2006: October's Resolution - I must stop expanding my garden areas and concentrate on good maintenance (weeding and raking paths) of what's already there. All individual plants, even the small and humble, are to be heard.
October Week 2 - More... Sat 14th Oct 2006: What a beautiful month! Traditionally a big working month (before I retired) I used to be flustered by October, trying to keep up with the changes. Beautiful October - I hope our new relationship continues for many more years!
October Week 3... Tue 17th Oct 2006: My late spring garden is so beautiful. I'm working so hard planting new shrubs and grasses, and the results are amazing. I think I am a gardening legend - long may this optimism continue!
October Week 3 - More... Sat 21st Oct 2006: is is the first spring that I've been properly home in my garden, ever. I am enjoying the quick-fire changes in the garden - colourful flowers bursting out of the greenery, and shrubs blooming without warning.
October Week 4... Tue 24th Oct 2006: These garden days are getting more and more colourful, with new flowers appearing, and rhododendrons in bloom. My garden has suddenly put on its coat of many colours. Wind - buzz off! Kindly blow somewhere else!
October Week 4 - More... Mon 30th Oct 2006: I love my garden with its flowers, colours, friendly animals, buzzing insects, tweeting birds, and general rustic country charm. I am very lucky - unlike the aphids on my recently sprayed roses.
November Week 1... Sun 5th Nov 2006: I think it's the beginning of summer! Go, you roses! Summer weather - get on with it! I have my new, sensible, floppy gardening hat freshly washed and ready.
November End Week 1... Tue 7th Nov 2006: November is a stunning month, and this year, for the very first time, I have all the time in the world to do the garden. There are so many flowers - roses, rhododendrons, irises, peonies - and the lawns are still nicely green.
November Week 2... Mon 13th Nov 2006: It feels like the edge of summer. My garden is growing well and looking fresh and beautiful. I love the new colours and flowers appearing every day - what a wonderful month! What a wonderful garden world!
November Week 3... Wed 15th Nov 2006: My goodness, my summer flowering shrubs are making their colourful mark. Shrubs - I love you all! My roses may seem to get all the attention in November, but it's thanks to you shrubs that the roses look so grand!
November Week 3 - More... Fri 17th Nov 2006: The Moosey roses are still looking wonderful! And no panic from the Moosey gardener that all the leaves or flowers are about to dissolve or to fall off - as yet!
November Week 3 - Even More... Tue 21st Nov 2006: I wish that the amount of November gardening taking place was equivalent to the amount I am writing this month. What's happening in the early summer garden? Could it be just a lot of talk about nothing?
November Week 4... Sat 25th Nov 2006: 'Tis the season of jolly choir practices for Christmas concerts. Christmas - eek! Four weeks to go, and lots of my lovely family will be here to admire the garden. I hope the roses will still be blooming and beautiful.</p>
November Week 4 - More... Thu 30th Nov 2006: Two serious summer pastimes have begun in earnest - weeding out the annual forget-me-nots, and dead-heading the roses, all of which are still looking beautiful. There is no other way to say it!
December Week 1... Mon 4th Dec 2006: This is serious - I need my own little lawn mower to do the immediate house lawns and the edges. I am based here at home, in the garden (theoretically) every day, with all the time (theoretically) in the gardening world.
December Week 1 - More... Thu 7th Dec 2006: Sorry for any gloomy threads which might have trickled into the journal of late. Some silly old gardeners just don't know how lucky they are! I am at peace again in my sparkling summer garden - a little dead-heading goes a long way.
December Week 2... Sun 10th Dec 2006: Summery sunshine one day, brooding rain clouds the next - what will our silly weather think of next? Don't even think of the frost word. And no hailing on my hostas! Forget any thoughts of wind, too - let's get into a nice calm summer mood.
December Week 2 - More... Wed 13th Dec 2006: Lacks self discipline and the ability to remain focused - this sounds like an end-of year school report! It describes the Moosey Head Gardener, who has fallen into a moochy, lazy mood.
December Week 3... Sun 17th Dec 2006: Summer temperatures are hotting up, as are summer lists of things to do. Already there are casualties, like bolting spinach, and a pair of grubby, stained sunhats. Cream might not have been the best colour!
December Week 3 - More... Wed 20th Dec 2006: I'm still busy trying to finish my serious mid-December list of gardening things to do. But there's a summer holiday feeling starting to creep in. Ooops!
December Christmas Week... Sun 24th Dec 2006: The summer weather has suddenly become a disgrace. Just hours away now from the longest day - that's mid-summer, by the way - and we are having hail, cold driving rain, and ghastly freezing winds.
Christmas!... Wed 27th Dec 2006: The garden preparations for Christmas Day are finally done, in a frenzy of weeding, dead-heading and clearing. Summer has returned. Merry Christmas!
End of December... Fri 29th Dec 2006: Now the actual days of Christmas have meandered past, we can all settle down for some serious summer garden life - light weeding and trimming, serious watering, with a spot of holiday reading thrown in, accompanied by picnics and barbeques...