Carexes beware...
Aha! I am still working my way down the section of the water race behind the Stables, wearing my waders, wielding my kitchen steak knife. Carexes beware - Moosey, the Avenger of Waterside Mess has been let loose!
Water Race Carex Mess
I will definitely dig out any unwanted waterside ferns with the spade. And when I arrive at the first Gunnera clumps, they, too will be cut down. Gunnera is a giant perennial, and frost has already browned off many of the leaves. Cleaning up the mess will be a task for late afternoon. Not everything can go on the bonfire - Gunnera stems, for example, are watery and need to dry out.
Apple Blossom Flower Carpet Roses
Five hours later...
Five hours! Have been very good. Did what I said I'd do, plus some digging out of rogue Ligularias in the Stumpy Garden, waterside. Calamagrostis grasses all trimmed too. Bonfire roaring - well, sort of. Am feeling proud, warm, and clean - three lovely feelings.
Monday 8th June
Three more hours in the water today - more Carexes sliced down, more Ligularias dug out. It's quite hard, physical work, so I finished the session sitting in the nearby border digging out weedy grasses. Cleared around three Choisya shrubs (only planted a year and a half ago), made some spaces for daffodil bulbs.
Tuesday 9th June
Three more hours today - I had to slice out a massive Carex, before starting to seriously trim the Gunnera by the Willow Tree Stump. This is finally falling to pieces, with large rotting sections, and is ready for a complete chain-sawing of the remaining sprouting bits.
Gunnera leaves
Chopped through Gunnera roots that were spreading exuberantly over to the other side of the water race. Gunnera can be a rather lethal coloniser of waterways in New Zealand. Finished the day planting daffodil bulbs. Didn't clean up everything. Don't care. Tomorrow is another day!
Still not leaking...
Yeay for my waders - they are still not leaking (hopefully this lasts) and I can stay in the water for hours without getting too cold. And yeay for a few brave rose, still flowering despite the frosty mornings.