Moosey News : November 2005

Dear Subscriber,

Welcome to the November issue of the Moosey gardening newsletter. The birds are twittering in the trees, and the head-gardener is twittering in her journals - it's early summer! Flowers, colour, roses! Enjoy!

This month's features

1. Sheep
2. Banksia Lutea Rose
3. Garden Visitors
4. Rhododendrons
5. Colour

Regulars

6. Plant of the Month : Hostas
7. Animal of the Month : Rusty the Puppy - or should that be 'dog'?
8. Garden Quote : Love
9. Garden Gallery : Tree Peony in Flower
10. Forum Focus : Roses and Vegetables
11. Gardening Advice : Stumped
12. Searching for Moosey : Romantic Ramblings
13. Coming up this month : Roses

This month's features

1. Sheep

The small flock of merino sheep have their special weekend of the year recorded in full colour. A sheep's life is more repetitive than a gardener's - until the trip down the road at shearing time.

2. Banksia Lutea Rose

Why should pink and red roses be the most popular, and the most talked-about roses in the early summer garden? On behalf of beautiful yellow and lemon roses, the lovely Banksia Lutea has taken over. I mean this quite literally, as the Moosey washing line is once again smothered in flowers. Oops!

3. Garden Visitors

The Moosey Garden, though not open to the real public, was lovingly (maybe frantically would be a better word) prepared for a small private party of visiting ladies. Rusty the puppy proudly joined their tour, showing them the paths and seats. Read all about it!

4. Rhododendrons

These beautiful flowering shrubs are now in full flowering mode, and there is much alarming new growth. Since so many were gifted to me, sans labels, it is still a wondrous, exciting time seeing exactly what colours they are. Readers who require proper naming of plants should definitely not peep at this page!

5. Colour

I keep discovering new bursts of early summer colour - from the tiny blue irises to the big Cornus trees with their pink and white flower-leaves. Check out the journal, where I try to describe, for the nth time, this wonderfully exciting, colourful garden-time.

Regulars

6. Plant of the Month : Hostas

Hostas, hostas and more hostas - I have groups popping up everywhere, with no rips, tears, or holes to spoil the pristine textures of their leaves. Touch wood!

7. Animal of the Month : Rusty the Puppy - or should that be 'dog'?

I'd like to give this award to the courageous ducks that try and live on my pond (thanks, Rusty the puppy), the hedgehogs that hide in the flax bushes and suffer his squealing and squeaking, and the pheasants that lurk, very carefully, in the Hazelnut Orchard - Rusty's favourite bird chasing location. If I name Rusty Animal of the Month, in honour of him recently reaching the grand dog-age of one year, will he be kinder to the wildlife?

8. Garden Quote : Love

This one's simple. My garden is most positively moving into summer. I love my garden!

9. Garden Gallery : Tree Peony in Flower

The rusty-red Tree Peony in the Willow Tree Garden has just finished flowering. What a beautiful colour it is!

10. Forum Focus : Roses and Vegetables

Roses and vegetables seem to fill the forum these days, as gardeners from 'down under' prepare for summer fun. Thanks to my forum friend Rebekah I now have a newly planted, proper vege garden of my own!

11. Gardening Advice : Stumped

Eek! I'm stumped this month. Quit while you're ahead? Never say no to free roses? Always mulch madly? Stake your peonies before their stems all fall over? How about this one - 'Take your own advice'? Aargh!

12. Searching for Moosey : Romantic Ramblings

Lemonwood

Some sensible, factual searches caught my eye this month - like the one asking for the Maori name for Lemonwood. It's Tarata, and you might enjoy seeing my pictures of this lovely tree-shrub...

Mermaid climbing rose

'Mermaid climbing rose' is a popular search for a popular rose. My Mermaid grows along a fence - it's a beautiful rose, but aggressively lethal with its thorns. Nothing like I imagine a real Mermaid...

Rambling garden journal

Then there are the more fanciful searches - like the 'Intelligent garden digger machine'. Ha! That sounds like me! And all other head-gardeners who do their own digging, by spade or shovel, intelligently, not losing interest, until the new patch of dug garden is complete. And I liked the search for 'romantic ramblings'. I wonder if I could put up one of my journal entries in this category...

Garden glossary

Finally, this search seemed very Moosey specific - 'listen cricket radio'. I have a crackly little radio on which I listen to the cricket (and rugby, and sometimes other sports) while busy in my garden. It is the latest in a long line of 'cricket radios' - some have been mulched, others have been dropped in the pond or left outside in the rain...

13. Coming up this month : Roses

Hopefully, far too many roses, with few aphids, no black spot, flowers covering rustless shiny green foliage - lovingly fed and watered, tied in to climbing frames and archways - blooms filling vases in every room, rose petals forming soft, fragrant carpets on the dewy green lawns... And lots of beautiful, dreamy rose photographs...

Leaving you with these misty, rosy, and hopefully inspiring images, happy gardening.

Cheers,