The Head Gardener

It's nice being the Head Gardener at Moosey's Country Garden. My name is Mary, though my adult children call me Moosey (please don't ask why!). For months I've tried to ignore them, but I've finally given in and started answering to this name...

I'm edging closer to sixty every year, and I'm simply a passionately obsessive gardener. if I'm not working in the garden I'm either writing about it or thinking about it. I have three children, all grown up, who come back home occasionally to save money, then leave again to go adventuring. Currently my daughter is working in South East Asia and younger son (a musician) lives here. Older son is my London webmaster, making up for forgotten birthdays and long forgotten teenage angst by designing this website - originally my Mothers Day present for the year 2000.

I'm a musician, too - I play classical piano, mainly Brahms and Bach. I've also made a bit of money playing easy-listening jazz. I used to teach senior Mathematics and Music at a high school in Christchurch. Mathematics and Music are my two intellectual interests, and listening to cricket matches a favourite leisure activity.

Non-Gardening Partner

We have eight cats and a young dog, Rusty. Taj-dog was the first Moosey dog - an Alsatian Labrador cross. He thought he was a sheepdog, though usually had to be shut in the car whenever the sheep were on the move. Now the new dog Rusty (a red border collie) has taken over. He adores Non-Gardening Partner Stephen. Rusty is kind to the cats, and great fun in the garden.

Cat Company

The cats provide great cat-company in the garden, too. Inside the house, Stumpy the grey is every visitor's best friend. Her sister Jerome is less pushy. Little Mugsy loves sitting on laps or legs. Tiger the fat-cat loves hiding underneath blankets and rugs. Fluff-Fluff (you guessed it - he's fluffy!) is a supreme gardening cat. The youngest three cats (Percy, Histeria, and Lilli-Puss) are siblings, and are living here by a happy accident.

Other cats have come and sadly gone - only one, Big Fat Sifter, has ever gone AWOL. He would stay inside just long enough to check out food possibilities, and was the champion killer of hay barn rodents and rabbits in the back paddock. Is he still out there, sifting around?

Personality Plus?

It's hard to write about one's personality - how do people who advertise in dating columns do it? I'm not even sure how to start. I know that I'm a compulsive rescuer, and have effected some very impressive rescues - ask my ex-students! Or ask the cats! (well, better to ask the birds, actually).

Or ask last year's excess lettuce seedlings (over two hundred of them), all neatly pricked out in cat food pottles. Discarding simply wasn't an option...

I guess I'm happiest talking about the garden. I love roses, perennials and sweeping lawns. I love foliage plants, particularly New Zealand natives. I don't like 'garden rooms' or controlled vistas - they may photograph well for the glossy gardening magazines, but they bring out the rebel in me. I try to be organic - for the sake of my ladybirds, bees and spiders.

Always Dreaming, Always Digging...

I'm always dreaming, digging, planting, making big plans and bigger mistakes! Who says I can't have two ponds, if I've got the space? A rose avenue through the middle of the orchard? Shouldn't be a problem. I hope you'll enjoy reading about my experiences of gardening in New Zealand.