Moosey News : Feb 2014

Dear Subscriber,

Oops. It's already one sixth of the way through 2014. My newsletters have been missing in action for a while. So sorry - please enjoy this one. I'm always promising to be a better gardener, and now I'm promising to be a better 'newletterer' as well!

Features :

  1. Recycled Resolutions
  2. Kate Sheppard Rose
  3. Gnome in the Pond
  4. Touching on Tea-Pots
  5. Lilac Rhododendrons

Regulars :

  1. Plant of the Month : Whisky Mac Rose
  2. Animals of the Month : Little Mac (and all the other cats)
  3. Garden Quote : Harmlessly deviant
  4. Garden Gallery : Roses, Roses, Roses
  5. Garden Thanks To : The Big Tree-Grabbers Next-Door
  6. Gardening Advice : Try this!
  7. Searching for Moosey : 'what are some nice flowering annuals'
  8. Coming up this month : Hopefully a brand new newsletter...

This month's features

1. Recycled Resolutions

It's not too late to think about those New Years' resolutions made at the beginning of the year 2104, is it? Better late than never, I guess. Please feel free to borrow any of mine...

2. Kate Sheppard Rose

This rose is exceedingly pretty and girlie, but the woman for whom it is named is super-important, and made of sterner stuff. She was New Zealand's foremost suffragette.

3. Gnome in the Pond

A caring garden gnome owner (me) finds a chap floating in her pond and immediately thinks 'photograph', rather than 'rescue'...

4. Touching on Tea-Pots

More worries for my garden gnomes - cute tea-pots might become my newest collecting obsession. Enjoy!

5. Lilac Rhododendrons

I love the way that the lilac coloured rhododendrons all seem to flower at the same time. Something to do with their breeding - maybe they're all related to that 'ponticum' pest which has invaded parts of Britain, maybe?

Regulars

6. Plants of the Month : Whisky Mac Rose

I think of Whisky Mac as a 'retro-rose', since it became extremely popular in New Zealand gardens in the 1970s. Maybe the whisky mac cocktail (whisky and green ginger wine) is the same colour? Hmm...

7. Animal of the Month : Little Mac (and all the other cats)

The recent one-year anniversary of losing Little Mac was a happy-sad day...

8. Garden Quote : Being harmlessly deviant

A rather nice quote to give hope and encouragement to the slightly eccentric ones...

9. Garden Gallery : Roses, Roses, Roses

Often in a journal page I'll pop in a strip of six rose pictures. Please scroll down, hover, click, and enjoy these beautiful flowers.

Reading the words is, of course, optional...

10. Garden Thanks To : The Big Tree-Grabbers Next-Door

It's taken weeks - and weeks - and yet more weeks. But finally the tall pine plantation right on my boundary has been felled. I've got new garden space, with lots of sunlight. And I've started making plans...

11. Gardening Advice : Try this!

This resolution is actually great gardening advice for any day, any week, or any month. See what you think...

12. Searching for Moosey : 'what are some nice flowering annuals'

Calendulas
I assume that 'nice' means well-behaved, so anyone desperate to control their flower garden might find Calendulas annoying.
Omphalodes
like Calendulas, Omphalodes do tend to self-seed too. But they are both oh so pretty and cheerful....

12. Coming up this month : Hopefully a brand new newsletter...

Unless I am so exceedingly busy gardening that I don't have a single minute to write anything or take any photographs. Hmm.... That's not likely to happen! Happy gardening.

Cheers,