Pot or garden?
The Easter weekend is now officially over, and I am left with huge numbers of sale plants to organise. Pot or garden? Perhaps a little bit of both! And where shall I plant my new hostas?
Tuesday 18th April
It's definitely Divide and Rule time for the hostas. I have been very busy planting up the new ones given to me by my friend. It has inspired me to drag out several clumps of my own, overshadowed by neighbouring shrubs. So this feels like a never-ending hosta planting session - I never actually manage to get 'them' all in!
Hostas in the Willow Tree Garden
Change of Status for Pond Paddock Gardens
I have formally recognised that the Pond Paddock garden borders have become leafy, woodlandish, and now provide a nice mixture of sun and shade. This change of garden status suggests an area which is now suitable for mass hosta plantings. I am having great fun gardening beneath the Oak trees. There's a warm glow from their reddening leaves, and a constant fluttering of leaf-fall.
Cabbage Tree :- Cabbage trees are classic New Zealand iconic plants, and I love them.
A large Cabbage tree marks the boundary between the Apple Tree Garden and the Pond Paddock borders. Its smooth, featureless trunk is over three meters high (think of high springboard diving, if this measurement is meaningless!), and Beige Puss got well and truly stuck up it. There was much squeaking and pathetic mewing, with brother-cat Fluff-Fluff and Rusty the dog sitting underneath, waiting for the descent. Ten minutes of this was enough! I got the step ladder, placed it underneath like a half-way platform, and then shut my eyes as B-Puss launched himself through the air onto the ladder top. Eek!
B-Puss (Beige Puss) up a Tree
Circus Cat?
Cats are so nonchalant. B-Puss, the Flying Feline Trapeze Artiste, leapt again and landed with a thump on the grass. He gave a bit of a tail shake, then proceeded to wash his bottom. OK, so it wasn't so scary up there! I believe you, B-Puss!
Enough. I have just enjoyed lunch and a cup of tea. There is much more to do, but it will get done! I think I've finally lost that pre-retirement panicky feeling, when for every garden task completed I found four more needing doing (sounds rather nasty and exponential). Ha! I am now a Sine Curve gardener, effectively constant, just wiggling on and on repeating myself!
Wednesday 19th April, Late...
Yesterday I finished my super-sized gardening day by burning six loads of rubbish, dragged out from behind the pond. Today I've just got back from a lovely day walk on the peninsula.
The route meandered gently high above Akaroa Harbour, through sheep peacefully grazing, ending in a bush-filled gully complete with Nikau palms - the southernmost place they grow 'naturally' on the New Zealand mainland. Ha! Sorry no photographs.
Hostas :- I'm lucky growing hostas - my garden is snail and slug-free.
There are many more plants waiting for garden positions than I thought! Eek! I seem to have been totally greedy about the hostas - there are still four large bags full. Another eek! Tomorrow I am picking up my new bicycle, after swimming. I will try very hard to get at least half the remaining hostas planted, and all the bargain bin sale plants. It's garden gluttony - the gardening version of 'eyes bigger than ones stomach' - for sure!
Bengal Tiger Canna Flower
The autumn weather has been brilliant - warm, calm and sunny. I must not mention the cricket (we are losing the first test, spectacularly, in South Africa) - far too gloomy!
Thursday 20th April
I planted a few more hostas, and test-rode my new bicycle. Ha! Now hopefully I will not fall off on the gravel roads. We need rain. And finally, after much twittering, I have dug out the purple leafed canna lilies by the start of the Apple Tree Garden. They deserve a sunny spot - I miss those fruity-rich orange flowers! Like agapanthus, cannas will grow in the shade, but no way will they bloom.