An in-between month...

June is an in-between month. Who knows if it will be hopelessly wintry, or warm and dry enough to garden every day? All my family is arriving this month - hope I still have time for the garden.

 The flowering cherries are spreading out sideways. I must remember to plant some daffodils underneath them.
the Pond Paddock in winter

Sunday 1st June

This must the mildest weather possible for the first day of June at Mooseys (temperatures again should reach 18 degrees). I've got up a little early (i.e. it's not quite light yet) for gardening. I wonder if I should write a small winter tasks list? Yesterday I noticed lots of fallen leaves in the Pond Paddock lawns - should I rake them up? Most certainly - they can be mulch on the surrounding gardens. I also need to shift pots and check out the residents already in the glass-house. Maybe they would appreciate a spot of watering in these mild temperatures? I have huge bags of daffodils to plant, and a question - how come when I use my digger to weed out a dandelion I inevitably slice through pockets of emerging bulbs? I kill as many as I plant it seems!

 My word - this needs a good clean-up!
Messy Glass-House

Winter is Coming

I know that all too soon the colder days of winter must come. So why aren't I already outside making the most of things? Or at least in my glass-house? I'm off right now. Hopefully my mid-morning report will be full of success and achievement. Back soon.

Later...

I am a legend! I have done so many things - cleared paths in the Wattle Woods, weeded by the water race, raked leaves, done edges, etc. For once I don't seem to have very much to say about it, though. I am more tired than usual, but enough said about that.

Monday 2nd June

Again the weather has been beautifully calm and warm. I have really worked hard today. I am very very proud of all achievements. I have got back into the heart and soul of my garden. All the busy work things I've been doing have floated out of my mind. It seems a shame to break the spell and come inside (but it's actually quite dark!). I am content.

Saturday 7th June

It's another mildly weathered winter morning. Taj-dog is happily snuffling around the lawns outside following some imaginary route which takes him through the Hump, around the house garden, onto the decking (trying to find crumbs from last evening's cat meals), then through the arch to the Pond Paddock. Every weekend morning it's the same routine, probably guided by the smells of past snufflings. Later this morning eldest son and partner arrive on a plane from London. Great excitement - the garden will have to wait a few hours.

 Roses which produce hips bring interesting shapes and colours to the winter garden.
rose hips in winter

Later...

I did work hard for about three hours, over the water race, mainly weeding and clearing paths. My knees got really wet and muddy, even though it was mild and sunny. In a way I need a frost to stop the silly little weeds which are germinating everywhere. I must move the pelargoniums and the curry plants into the glass-house soon! I did a lot of thinking about what I'd do if I had more time in the garden (hee hee). One hundred hazelnut trees are arriving for next weekend - the paddock is already marked out, and we'll see how easy (or annoying) they are to plant. I'm still keen to get some heirloom apples and other fruit trees planted in the edge strip. This mild calm weather can't hold for much longer.

Sunday 8th June

I am distracted by my lovely visitors from London - it is now 9.25 am and I am still inside drinking coffee with them. What shall I do first today? Preparing for the frosts which must come soon seems like a really sensible idea - demonstrating the kind of forward thinking and planning that I am not always known for. The sun is very low in the sky, and those Hump trees are at their worst, blocking even the midday sun from some of the house. I must acknowledge that the Hump trees shelter us from all the high summer winds, though.

Garden Tools :
How many garden tools have I lost in the garden? I'm always leaving them behind in piles of compost, or mulching them in the borders....

I think I'll just go outside with my wheelbarrow-ful of assorted tools, find a nice spot, and start clearing. In my latest gardening magazine, writer Neil Ross tells me that "the best winter gardens resemble a partially decomposed carcass, rather than a fully stripped skeleton". Bearing this in mind, I will venture forth. Back soon.

Later, apres gardening...

No carcasses, just clearing paths in Middle Border (trying not to squash patches of daffodils) and organising a rogue willow tree to be chain-sawed down. I feel that I'm tinkering rather than doing anything hugely important, but I guess there's a lot of that in winter gardening. My bonfire was rather fun, and I now have a volcano of ash to distribute. I'm looking forward to next weekend's tree planting - a whole new paddock will be gradually transformed. I have a lot of space for specimen trees as well as my planned fruiting ones. Exciting stuff!

I wonder when the weather is going to get colder?