It's Labour Weekend...
Spring Lavender
It's Labour Weekend, when the vegetable garden is traditionally planted in my province. Hmm... So that spring frost we had last night was our last for the year? I jolly well hope so!
Friday 19th October
This morning after swimming - what will I do first? Check for frost damage - likely some Gunnera leaves might be burnt around the edges. Luckily for me my daisies are still snug in the glass-house - phew! Then I will hopefully locate B-Puss, who is still behaving oddly, for today's return vet visit. Something is wrong with him...
Late Afternoon...
I've worked hard laying newspaper and mulch in the Welcome Garden and weeding. Frost damage around the garden has been minimal - all the Gunnera in leaf is well sheltered, and the pond Gunnera, out more in the open, hasn't quite got started.
Garden Search
I have been searching the garden for my big beautiful white cat B-Puss for the last hour and a half, with no luck. I've found a purple iris and some little dwarf deep blue ones flowering, lots of lavender flowering, and the roses Canary Bird and Fruhlingsmorgen in bloom... Congratulations! First rose bloomers of the year!
Fruhlingsmorgen Rose
I've found old buckets, and abandoned plastic pots, and pieces of rubbish, and new hostas thriving, and the Mexican Orange Blossom in blossom - but no white cat...
The Choisya is Flowering
Saturday 20th October
Ha! B-Puss slouched inside late last night and has been shut in the Moosey Office with food and a cat-litter box. We go to the vet this morning.
I've just been over to feed the hens, with Fluff-Fluff and the three kittens following. Did I say hens? As well as an assortment of black, brown, and grey birds from the surrounding trees, I am also feeding a little brown rabbit - aargh! He pops out from underneath the hen house, scuttles underneath the nearest hen breast, and starts to munch layer pellets in safety. Hmm...
Mow That Lawn!
This weekend it's really important that I have a list, some goals, a serious plan, and all that. I have my garden helper standing by (NGP, AKA Non-Gardening-Partner). If I ask him nicely at the beginning of a long weekend his sense of responsibility usually kicks in.
List for NGP
- 1. Pea Straw
- Needed for my mulching programme in the flower gardens, where my rolled-up hay is too difficult to pull apart into appropriately small pieces.
- 2. Path Mulch
- Needed for the Wattle Woods paths, on which I must insist that weed suppressing newspaper is first laid.
- 3. Lawn Mowing
- The gardens over the water race look messy if the lawns are messy.
- 4. Tree Damage
- More chain-sawing and shifting of logs is needed, and then I can plant this area with shrubs. Hee hee - more plants to buy!
I'll put my own weekend stuff in a paragraph - seems less bossy this way. I need two more standard roses for the Island Bed. The Viburnum Tinus shrubs are doing well in the Welcome Garden, so I will buy some more to screen the next door driveway. More of my seedlings can be planted out if it's not too sunny, and I'll do some more seed sowing - lettuces, cosmos, pansies, lavateras, and anything else which suits early summer flowering.
Much, Much Later...
Hurray for NGP who has broken and fixed his tractor, mowed the orchard, got me pea straw and mulch, and mowed the lawns over the water race. And hurray for me who has laid heaps of new path surfaces, weeded, done the pond paddock edges, put pea straw and shreddings all over the new Glass-House Garden, and watered all my pots and seedlings.
B-Puss is now being treated for cat-asthma - the vet says if he's not better in a couple of days he goes back for a chest x-ray. I feel some relief that his treatment is moving along. But I want my old B-Puss back! I miss him.
Rooster in the Grass
I am cross with my rude rooster who got himself and his hens on the wrong side of the fence. They've nipped off all the tips of my seedling cornflowers, just planted, and when I wasn't looking he nipped the back of my leg. Ouch.