Green and pleasant...
I think summer has arrived! It's warm, the roses are blooming, and we've started to run the big irrigation. Sweeping lawns do not create a nice framework for the early summer borders unless they are green and pleasant.
Gunnera - The Inside Story
Monday 7th November
A day of lists! A short list should suffice for the garden - today will be pretty simple:
Garden List
- Clearing and Burning
- Gather up remaining hedge trimmings, and burn if windless.
- Watering
- Forget Duck Lawn. It's duckless, anyway. Back into the Wattle Woods.
- Weeding
- Weed the Wattle Woods. Working in nicely with Clearing and Burning above, adding fuel to the fire! Ha!
Then a personal list:
- Go for a walk (including puppy).
- Go for a swim (me).
- Go to visit seaside gardening friend (me).
And a couple of weekend sports achievements to sneak into this gardening journal:
- We won the rugby (against Wales).
- We lost the cricket (against South Africa).
Later...
Sublimely successful. My seaside gardening friend's garden looks lovely. And she will come swimming with me on Wednesday, before we visit the Botanic Gardens, where she does potting work in the Succulent and Cactus House. Now I am back, and the hoses are back on. It's been a beautiful day. See - lists do work!
Tuesday 8th November
Sometime today I will have to burn all the rubbish I resolutely collected yesterday. With such nice early summer weather, this seems rather rude. But there's nothing else I can do with it! Rubbish from underneath gum trees burns. First I have to go in to work. Blast. Only two days to go, though. Yippee!
Trimming the Olearia Hedge
Wednesday 9th November
Another odd day, work-wise. I didn't burn yesterday - oops. I also didn't finish clearing up the hedge trimmings. And this morning I have a serious social engagement. I wonder what the Botanic Gardens will look like?
Before I Go...
President Roosevelt Flower
Before I go anywhere I will take puppy for a walk and put on my hoses. There's a President Roosevelt rhododendron which flowers late in the Wattle Woods and needs encouragement (that is, water). I will check the rose avenue climbing roses, too - they were planted some weeks ago and many are starting to flower. I can turn on a little plastic valve by the stile and water them from their little spiky drippers. Garden technology! Their very first summer! How exciting!
Friday 11th November
I think my work has finally finished! Yippee! Today is a hose watering day, as the nor-west wind dries out everything in my garden. Aargh! Already we have run the big irrigation for two nights - this is so early in the summer season to have to do this. So far this morning I have watered pots, shifted the hoses in the dry Wattle Woods, talked to the puppy, and cleared some more of the hedge mess. I have moved the final pots of succulents and daisies out of the glass-house (oops - I forgot about them), and my annual blue cornflowers need planting - now!
Early Summer Flowers
There are roses blooming everywhere - so many, that individual shrubs and colours now have little impact. Graham Thomas, one of the later David Austin English roses, is almost flowering. The rambler on the woodshed roof is amazing. The new Birthday Rose Garden is exciting to watch, too - can I remember the names of the new roses in here? Please, please, please let me have written a list somewhere!
My new Wisteria on the house pergola is making alarming lengths of fresh green growth. I suspect I have a lot to learn about the pruning and restraining of Wisteria. Will this be another major Moosey mistake? Too bad! The fragrance of the (few, as yet) light purple blooms will be worth it? My walking friend's Wisteria tends to pop up inside the rooms of her house. Hmm...
I plan to enjoy the garden today - to read, and wander, and potter. It is the perfect day to weed from within the water race, if the temperatures get too hot. Sunscreen, hat, water bottle - I love this time of the year!
Blue Lupins
Saturday 12th November
Except I would love it more if there was gentle overnight rain. All my lawns look dreadful, and the harsh sunlight is very glary. Should be thankful for any sunlight at all, I guess! Anyway, today I've been shifting hoses and pulling out forget-me-nots and generally poking around.
Puppy and I have walked up the road and back - dreadful ambience, with puppy dangling a piece of something old and once furry from his mouth. Gross dog! It's turned hot again, but I managed to burn my rubbish pile this morning when the wind was down. I've hosed the ash heap down now that the dry nor-west is back. There are supposed to be thunderstorms later this afternoon. That will be exciting!
Sunday 13th November
It's raining! I have been watering and clearing the native garden at the end of the Hump. Interesting - the Hebes are suffering (that's extremely euphemistic - they are quite possibly dead), but those Pittosporums seem to cope really well. Sure, they don't grow much, but they survive! I stayed outside until I got cold-wet. I've been in the garden a lot today - first clearing around the Frisbee Border. Mental note to lawnmower man - the mowing of the Frisbee Lawn is far too rough! It looks like it was done with the tractor, and the edges left for me to trim are almost a meter wide.
Mental note to self - the climbing rose Cecile Brunner is beautifully ambient to weed underneath, seemingly thornless, and I think I could detect a soft subtle fragrance.
Cecile Brunner Flower
The little Water Tank Garden has also benefited from my watering. These plants were also looking decidedly dodgy. I though New Zealand Natives were tough, ready for anything sort of plants! If I have to worry about them getting watered every week I might as well have planted a rose garden (hee hee)...
Rain Noises and Bach
Now I am inside listening to rain noises (lovely) and Bach's Brandenburgs (lovely). I am warm, dry, and very lucky. My thirsty garden is being gently rained on. My animals are peacefully passing the time of day. Puppy loves me, even though my pack-name is the B.B.B. - sorry, but that appropriately stands for Big Bad B..... Stumpy is lap-sitting. Tiger and Mugsy are snoozing nearby, and Jerome is on the stairs guarding the upstairs from dog-invaders. It's time for a quiet smile, a back stretch, and a contented sigh.