Recent Garden News

Being modest, as usual...
Head Gardener

The Recent Garden News page displays the fifteen most recent additions to Mooseys Country Garden. This should help visitors keep up with what's going on in my garden.

Gardens are always growing and changing - there's always something new to see. And, as I love writing about my garden almost as much as being in it, there'll always be some new Moosey ramblings to read, or new pictures to look at. Perhaps the garden activities of my summer will warm up a northern hemisphere gardener's winter days. I know how much I enjoy my mid-winter garden visits to summery places.

Two weeks can be a long time in the life of a garden. There's inevitably some repetition, so please be understanding if I'm saying the same things over and over again. I hope you'll enjoy seeing what I've been working on recently...

More shrubs less lawn?More shrubs less lawn?...
Inspiration while sitting on Pond Cottage's verandah with my early morning cup of tea and my cottage cat. What do you think, Minimus? I am going to redefine (euphemistic, this word) the far edge of the Pond Paddock border. More shrubs, less lawn. Miaow?
Be kind to the roses...Be kind to the roses......
Aha! This morning my head is full of rosy gardening ideas. It's a be kind to my roses day. They are mainly dead-headed (or should be), their early summer flowering finished...
So close...So close......
It's those same old two phrases, I'm afraid. Out they come again, and they are inexorably connected. 'I did my best'. 'But I didn't finish'. Aargh! So many times have I whispered these, trying not to feel garden-guilty.
Out, out...Out, out......
Some years ago, in the summer of 2011, I decided to eradicate the invasive Lamium from the garden by the pergola. Ha ha. A wee botanical joke, that. Now it's summer, 2020, and that Lamium is everywhere again. And once more, out it is coming. Nine years' worth of it. Aargh!
Good morning...Good morning......
Good afternoon to my January garden, to my new camera (so groovy), to my dogs (a bit bored), and to Non-Gardening Partner (avoiding me). Would he like to do some New Year's chainsawing? 'Not terribly, no.' Very polite, don't you think? And good afternoon to the New Zealand cricketers, battling away in Sydney...
Gardening Articles 2020Gardening Articles 2020...
Here are my gardening articles for the year 2020. But will there be anything new to write about? My garden exploits have always been repetitive, and the journal contains my erratic, day-by-day gardening ramblings. A few well-crafted, focussed articles on set topics would be nice - preferably ones that don't moan about the weeds or the weather, hee hee. As in everything, I will do my best.
Shrub SizeShrub Size...
Shrub size is puzzling. I must be either very unobservant (please no) or I live, visually at least, in a gardening dreamworld, seeing only what I want to see. I have no sense of shrub dimensions : when they're comfortably medium-sized I never sense trouble. They simply look grand, the perfect size, fitting the space I've given them...
How can I?How can I?...
OK. How can I be a more interesting person when all I do is weed and trim and pick up gum tree bark from the lawns? I am a trundler of wheelbarrows, a spreader of horse manure, a scooper of mulch. Doesn't sound interesting at all.
Just one...Just one......
Confession. I think they are silly. But I have made one little personal New Year's resolution. It is as follows : In 2020 I am not going to be boring. I am going to be interesting. Hmm... And who will be the judge of this? Me, hee hee...
New YearNew Year's Resolution 2020...
I have created the best New Year's resolution ever! In 2020 I will get Non-Gardening Partner more actively involved in helping me in the garden. Think of it as a prelude to his retirement from work, if you like. No longer will I be vague and undemanding. He will not escape so easily in 2020!
Happy New YearHappy New Year...
Good morning, 2020. Welcome to my gardening world. Please be kind to my garden, all year, if that's OK with you. New Year's resolutions seldom last, so I won't list any specific ones. As in everything, I'll try and do my best every day. And be nice to my dogs (that's easy) and my cats (ditto). For me, 2020 has started off as the Year of the Potato...
Garden Journal 2020Garden Journal 2020...
The year 2020 : there's a lovely symmetry to its numbers. Hmm... Maybe each day I could do twenty good gardening deeds, take twenty photographs, write twenty pages of my journal... Just a thought! Twenty minutes compulsory weeding each day would be very useful. Aargh! Here are my garden journal pages for 2020.
Too many, too close, too big...Too many, too close, too big......
My planting schemes : too many, too close, too big. I don't notice anything's wrong for ages and ages. Then, suddenly it is all too obvious. Ooops. So I have spent two hard-working days cutting down two very large Phormiums. Both are planted at the very back of the Birthday Rose Garden, high on the bank above the water race. Both are far too big and ugly for my high standards of garden border texture, hee hee.
A new cameraA new camera...
I love the timeless summer days between Christmas Day and the New Year. The fridge is full of food. I love doing my garden. And most of all - Non-Gardening Partner is home on holiday. Yippee! Man-power to harness, man-muscle to utilise, a man-mind to organise.
A muddly mess...A muddly mess......
The garden is not ready for Christmas. It is not tidy, or well weeded, and certainly not well groomed. It is a muddly mess of greenery and flowering dahlias, roses that need dead-heading, paths that need clearing. I don't think I care, though! It is reasonably well watered, so no shrubs or trees are in distress. And that's all that matters in mid-summer.
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