Moosey News : April 2009

Dear Subscriber,

Autumn is here! That means that spring is there, in the balance of southern to northern gardening life. Mind you, I've never gardened in the tropics, where the days are the same length. I'd need my tropical garden to be air conditioned!

This month's features :

1. The Ellerslie Flower Show Comes to Town
2. New Patio Pots
3. Birthday Garden Mural
4. Garden Bloggers
5. Ready for the Garden Club Visit?

Regulars :

6. Plant of the Month : Saint Exupery Rose
7. Animal of the Month : Minimus the Girl Kitten
8. Garden Quote : Simplify and Spend
9. Garden Gallery : Aotearoa Rose
10. Forum Focus : Poetry
11. Gardening Advice : Decisions before Nursery Visits
12. Searching for Moosey : Garden Anniversary
13. Coming up this month : All sorts of lovely things...

This month's features

1. The Ellerslie Flower Show Comes to Town

This is New Zealand's big FLOWER SHOW - so big that it demands upper case letters, thank you very much. It's moved south from Ellerslie for the very first time...

2. New Patio Pots

The patios are hosting a group of visiting Garden Club ladies for lunch. What a great excuse to buy new pots!

3. Birthday Garden Mural

When a gardener's adult children roam the wide world, their birthday presents can be chosen simply by what fits in the post the best. Hee hee...

4. Garden Bloggers

Hurray and yippee for garden bloggers, who have really livened up the world wide gardening web.

5. Ready for the Garden Club Visit?

Getting the garden ready for the Garden Club visit - the Moosey journals have been full of nothing else for the last weeks. The Garden Club visit was very successful, by the way - well, the Head Gardener enjoyed herself immensely.

Regulars

6. Plant of the Month : Saint Exupery Rose

This strangely named rose was rescued from a bargain bare-root rose table in a supermarket. It's not so very well known, either...

7. Animal of the Month : Minimus the Kitten

Born wild, abandoned at five weeks to sink or swim, labelled as a boy for the next two months - Minimus the girl kitten is now totally integrated into the Moosey Animal Farm. Go girl!

8. Garden Quote : Simplify and Spend

This is not the right thing to advocate in a recession. Simplifying the garden is one thing, but spending money? Hmm...

9. Garden Gallery : Aotearoa Rose

Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand, where I garden. This porcelain pink rose was lucky to get the naming rights - New Zealand is more green than pink, in my opinion!

10. Forum Focus : Poetry

It had to happen - gardeners are creative souls, after all. The forum now has a poetry thread with a certain 'back-to-childhood' appeal...

11. Gardening Advice : Decisions before Nursery Visits.

To counter the effects of being random, I have advised myself to make plant decisions and even dig planting holes BEFORE zooming off to the nursery with my wallet.

12. Searching for Moosey : Garden Anniversary

Kew's Garden Anniversary Book

The oldest parts of my garden are fifteen years old - hardly impressive, when compared to Kew Gardens in London. That's 250 years old, according to my latest gardening book.

The Head Gardener at Kew

I was lucky to visit Kew Gardens in 2005.

13. Coming up this month : All sorts of lovely things...

Colder evenings, new lists, new plans - and a short trip away. Colourful autumn leaves to enjoy, take loads of photographs of - and start raking up. Oops....

Cheers,