Garden Journal 2023

Welcome, 2023, to my garden and my life in general. Please let your surprises be good ones. Please be full of good gardening, kindness, and moderation - not too much growth from all my lovely leafy trees, not too many extreme weather events, and so on. Here's hoping for lots of great gardening energy, and a garden journal that's positive, lively, and not too boring!

Happy New Year for 2023Happy New Year for 2023...
Happy New Year for 2023. Please be a good year! Last year I gave up on the rose I'd planted (years ago) for world peace. It looked dead, so I chopped all the canes down. Today, a tiny ray of sunshine - one short new stem with one flower. Yeay! When escaping into the garden one must never give up hope.
Easy as!Easy as!...
This summer holiday gardening lark is so easy. One puts on a long sleeved cotton shirt, grabs a sunhat, slops on sunscreen, and does two gardening sessions : first thing in the morning and last thing in the afternoon. Easy as. In between times, one plays the piano, works on the summer jigsaw, does some web-gardening, and re-reads Harry Potter...
Summer cricket... Summer cricket... ...
Have spent many of these last days listening to test match cricket commentaries on the radio - Australia playing South Africa in my daytime, then New Zealand playing Pakistan into the evening. Summer cricket! Yeay!
Tidy up that spiral!Tidy up that spiral!...
I love being a Facebook gardener, so to speak. A friend in Florida liked my brick Herb Spiral, and asked questions about its dimensions and plan (oops - I didn't really have one). She also asked me for tips - aha! The surest way to a gardener's heart - ask for advice!
Big, beautiful...Big, beautiful......
My garden looks beautiful. Things in the borders are getting bigger (Phormiums) and even bigger (trees). And when the space between them and me is a beautifully mown paddock-lawn, big is definitely beautiful.
Wild cats!Wild cats!...
Love my cats. Love looking after my cats. I'd like to think that they love me in return. Surely this is not too much to ask when I provide lovely food and good company?
Feature the features!Feature the features!...
As well as rambling paths, over-grown borders, and floppy dahlias, I have some interesting features in my garden : stone retaining walls, bridges, a Koru styled brick courtyard, a brick Herb Spiral, an ornamental pond and so on. I need to make features of these lovely features!
Picking up the pieces...Picking up the pieces......
What did I do yesterday? I picked pieces of gum tree bark off the gardens and lawns. What should I be doing today? Picking up pieces of gum tree bark, And tomorrow? Etc. Etc. Etc.
Flowers for the house...Flowers for the house......
What's the nicest garden activity to do first thing in the morning? Wander around picking flowers for the house. So many to choose from, though (alas) some of the mid-summer lovelies (like the Shasta daisies) are a bit stinky.
A lazy month?A lazy month?...
Goodbye January. You've been a rather lazy month - well, not exactly you, more so your Head Gardener and her Non-Gardening Partner (who has spent most of the new year on holiday). A month can't really have its own personality, I guess. But all is well, and your dahlias are gorgeous.
Somewhere...Somewhere......
Oh dear. There is a path in here - somewhere, in here... Have just been struggling to get through the shadier end of the Hump Garden. Some of the loveliest trees, like the Cercis, have put on unprecedented growth. What comes first - a tree or a path? The path might come first chronologically, but it moves when the tree grows too big.
Too hot...Too hot......
So February has arrived with a blast of hot, hot air, temperatures in the low thirties. Good jigsaw and book reading weather. Difficult to do much enjoyable gardening. Just too hot.
Good news...Good news......
Lots of good news. Firstly, the temperature last evening and this morning is slightly cooler. Only slightly, but phew! This is very timely, as my garden is so summer-scruffy. And I'm missing my cottage (it's been too hot to sleep in).
Not fair!Not fair!...
It's still too hot for me to be happy gardening, even first thing in the morning or after sundown. I am doomed (for now) to wander aimlessly around my garden in the shade, just looking. And seeing so much that needs doing! Not fair!
Two things...Two things......
If I could ask for one thing : please can I have cooler daytime temperatures? Oh - can I make that two things? Can I also please become re-energised and recharged, thus able to work tirelessly for long hours, recreating the serene, restful garden I used to have. These two requests are somewhat inter-related.
Remote...Remote......
All those pages with me moaning away about it being too hot to garden - am ashamed of myself, being so safe, well away from cyclone troubles and subsequent flooding up north. I've been rather remote from my garden these last few days...
Team Weather!Team Weather!...
Looking wistfully back over my last week, which has been dominated by the weather. We have been completely in unison. If the weather behaved, so did I. If not, me neither. Team Weather!
Looking backwards...Looking backwards......
So the first thing I have to do today is clean up last week's mess. Aargh! Such a sad, backwards-looking thing to do. Should clean my mess up at the time I make it, yes?
The longest list...The longest list......
I have just written the longest list of things that I need to do in the garden. When I say long I mean long! I divided the garden up into twenty distinct areas, with one page for each. I filled up every page with stuff to do! Then I collated and cross-checked everything and produced even more pages. Way over the gardening top!
More about the longest list...More about the longest list......
More about my huge list full of much needed garden improvements (twenty pages of detail, plus three collated master-lists) : plants to be shifted, plants to be potted up, new plants to buy, hee hee. I will be digging and shifting things for weeks.
My Great March Gardening ListMy Great March Gardening List...
Aha! Another great day spent working my way through my Great March Gardening List. Spent ages clearing the paths that lead from Rooster Bridge past the Camellias into the Wattle Woods. Love the spiky greenery in this part of my garden.
Swipe!Swipe!...
Good morning to Speckles my stray cat. We have just had early breakfast together, sitting on the cottage verandah. Lately Speckles has been behaving like an unsettled hybrid (striped Phormiums come to mind), showing a strong tendency to revert back to his hissy, wide-eyed, wild origins...
Back to the list!Back to the list!...
I promised my garden I would be really good and would take notice of my large, excruciatingly detailed March Gardening List. Shut my eyes and picked a page at random - the Hump Garden.
With maturity comes common sense...With maturity comes common sense......
No gardening today, because it's raining again. I love the rain, but I'm not going outside to garden in it. With maturity comes common sense, and patience (that's the theory anyway). My garden and I can both wait.
Back to the Hump Garden...Back to the Hump Garden......
Out I go, hot coffee, wheelbarrow, hand tools, rake, sunhat (even though it's a nearly-autumn sun). I am back working my way through the Hump Garden. This time I'll be starting at the house end, by the archway. Wonder how far I'll get?
Dogs, books, new roses...Dogs, books, new roses......
Can't believe what I've just said to my dogs, who have appeared for their first morning cuddle. Told them that I quite like their stinky-dog smell. It's a warm, living, soft, friendly smell. Crikey!
Floppy dahlia time...Floppy dahlia time......
It's floppy dahlia time again. But of course there are solutions : stake them, or build criss-cross bamboo fences, to stop them falling over paths etc. and being a nuisance. Dahlias in the middle of the border can easily just lean against something else. But of course they don't.
Nice and not so nice...Nice and not so nice......
I have big plans for today. They are nice and not so nice. One is stunning (a visit to a local rose nursery sale). Yeay! What a groovy reward this will be. I'll start off with something nice : taking the dogs around the orchard for a walk. Nice as long as Pebbles doesn't jump the fence and go into next door's paddock.
Help with the autumn clean-up?Help with the autumn clean-up?...
Would Non-Gardening Partner like to take a day off work to help me with the autumn garden clean-up? He could shred the Pittosporum branches. Don't want to put them on the bonfire - I'd much rather have mulch.
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