I haven't done much gardening this month...
Hmm... I haven't done much gardening this month. I've done a lot of swimming, walking and singing. But generally the garden is looking good. This may be more due to the high summer rainfall than the gardener...
The Water Race in Summer
Monday 15th January
I have to seriously decide on some serious things. Am I, for example, going to remove all my sprawling patches of species daylilies? My Plant Banishment Policy needs to be spruced up. I must be seen to be fair - after all, roses like Robusta, which wasn't 'robusta' enough, have gone up in flames.
Daylilies :- Those daylilies are doing nothing but taking up space. The hybrids are so much nicer!
This is but one serious gardening concept I will float around my brain while swimming. And when I return - daylilies look out! I seem to remember I've done this before. I must have left little pieces of root behind.
Mid-Afternoon...
Oops - it's rather hot outside. An interim daylily decision has been made - that this may not be quite the right time for their mass elimination. Perhaps during the Great Autumn and Winter Clean-Up, when larger, more shrubby plans are made. I could even swap a decent shrub for a daylily patch, that sort of thing.
Fluff-Fluff in the Pansies
I've been dead-heading in the shade, and I'm about to return for some kneeling and weeding. The Driveway and Hump Gardens are not quite as ambient as I'd like - a vigorous scraping of weeds would definitely help. Too many self-seeders are allowed free rein in here - of course they immediately bring in their weed-friends and weed-relations.
- 'Use self-seeders only if they are useful.'
- -Moosey Words of Wisdom.
I must stop feeling pathetically grateful to pansies, pyrethrum daisies, and nicotianas. Use self-seeders only if they are useful! Ha! Gardening Rule Number 54... At least if I work in the Driveway I'll get cat company. Even little Mugsy the cat is brave enough to potter down the drive. Back soon.
Tuesday 16th January
Hmm...I like the idea of replacing the species daylilies with shrubs - I've found yet another clump which is going nowhere. I have enough foliage spiky plants, I don't need these non-descript patches in my summer garden. I need colour!
Daylies with a Jester Flax
I had heaps of fun yesterday weeding in the Driveway and Hump. My Pittosporum forest is much more leafy - these lovelies are growing well! What's needed now is the newspaper-mulch treatment, which will force my hand regarding the self-seeders.
This week the new blue seats are to be unveiled - presented to public garden eyes (that's me, the seat-painter, the dog, and a few curious cats). They will rest on the little enclosed lawn by the Willow Tree. A ceremony might be nice, with music? Aargh! The rippling quavers and semiquavers of His Majesty JS Bach can do battle with the burbling of the water in the water race. I have now 'learnt' five of the seventeen choruses of the B Minor Mass. Please note the inverted commas around the word 'learnt'. Blessed are amateur musicians who are blindly over-confident, particularly when the tempo marking is 'vivace' and the conductor is in a manic mood. Hmm...
Red Achillea
Friday 19th January - Oops! Three Missing Days...
It's not as bad as all that. I have been swimming, practising my singing, and on Wednesday we spent a whole day walking in the back high country tussock lands by Lake Coleridge. There also has been cricket, the results of which will not be commented on.
Waiting for The Shredder
And I have done gardening, too - mainly dead-heading and watering, and I've been trimming stray tree and shrub branches. I have little piles all ready for The Christmas Shredder, which should be arriving any day now. One clump of species daylilies has gone, and I'm starting to cast dangerous looks at another by the driveway. I like the double flowering rust coloured ones, but those pathetic singles are simply not flowering.
B-Puss on Middle Bridge
Today is the most beautifully hot day yet this summer, and I am free to garden all afternoon. It's windless and warm - lovely! And the water race is burbling through my gardens, reminding me how precious clean water is and how lucky I am. Right? Even if I can't sing Bach's Glorias and Hosannas, which are firmly in the Baroque fast lane.
What Plant Am I?
Hoping not to offend any serious re-incarnationists (I made that word up), Web-Master and I have been busy working on a deep and meaningful Moosey questionnaire, with the working title 'What Plant Am I?'. I always thought it would be yawningly boring to be reincarnated as some Black Mondo grass, edging some apartment dweller's stylish courtyard. But this morning I noticed that this little plant is flowering - delicate lilac purple flowers are poking out of its stylish stalks. Hmm... It's beautiful! So, Mistress Know-It-All Moosey Head Gardener, take that!
Sunday 21st January
Let me just list the boring, physical gardening maintenance tasks that I've completed over the last two days. Please be very impressed!
- I have weeded the vegetable garden.
- And I've planted the final lettuces and silver beet, and a little heirloom butternut pumpkin, and I've started digging my beautiful potatoes and harvesting my beans. Yum.
- I have cleaned out the Hen House.
- Easy! And the manured barley straw goes straight on the Hen-House Garden.
- I have cleared the Hen-House Garden Paths.
- Gum tree leaves, bits of bark, weeds - all the rubbish is gone - and this goes for the borders alongside the paths, too.
And I have planted lots of clumps of grass seedlings. These have been recycled from the middle of the Wattle Woods path.
I am bubbling over with gardening energy, so this lunch break will be very short. And better news regarding gardeners singing in the Bach B Minor Mass. I have now done an adequate amount of personal preparation (for example, three solid hours yesterday) for tomorrow night's scary FIRST REHEARSAL. Oooo - scary! At least I've sorted out the G naturals from the G sharps.
What Plant Am I?
And I've been writing for the silly new 'What Plant Am I?' questionnaire, soon to be launched onto an unsuspecting Moosey public. The idea is simple - you are asked twelve questions, and by your answers are told what plant you are.
Rhapsody in Blue :- Rhapsody in Blue is my favourite rose - for the moment!
Gardeners will be completely happy with this concept - they already know that plants have definite personalities. The more scientifically minded may consider it frivolous...
Anyway, I want to be a Rhapsody in Blue rose-bud - one of the most beautiful flowers I've ever met and photographed. Shy on the surface, but possessing incredible inner strength, and having a huge impact on all... Hee hee.