Happy Valentines Day to my garden...

 My lovely Korean Angelica.
Bees on Angelica

Happy Valentines Day to my garden, large sprawling object of my ever-present affection and deeply obsessive love. And devotion - apart from yesterday, when I took the whole day off to go walking.

Thursday 14th February

Today I intend to spend the whole afternoon with my garden, the love of my life. I am going to be changing things around - the paths in the middle of the Hump are coming out, their stone edges to be used in the Wattle Woods. I simply cannot keep the Hump well maintained enough. My silly wiggling paths have failed to create any sense of mystery, and I never want to linger in, or sit in, or even walk through the Hump. It's too dry, too messy, and only the purple Honesty grows at all well - that's early in spring.

The Pittosporum forest at the Hump's far end is OK. At the house end the Hump needs work and sensible thought. Since the huge pine tree blew down the area is light and airy, and has been officially adopted into the 'house gardens'. I've promised myself to look after it.

 There is such a beauty of form to these flowers when newly opening.
New Dahlia Flower

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day - Roses - Roses - Valentine's Day. I have some sad roses which need shifting before they kick the gardening bucket, and this seems a very appropriate day for rose rescuing. The pink Grootendorsts do not like being in the dry Hen House garden, beyond the reach of the big irrigation. Two budget roses in the Driveway Garden should never have been planted there.

 One of my new roses which is perfectly happy!
Teasing Georgia

But hey! Not all of my roses are sulking or struggling...

Later, in the Mid-Afternoon Rain...

It's a little too wet to continue, but I've done some brilliant work, even if I say so myself! The Hump Garden is now much better organised into no-go-too-much-mess and gaze-at-with-admiration areas. The main path has gone - I've used the stones to re-edge a Wattle Woods path. I've cleared an almost square area in the top lawn for the new rustic benches and matching table. Now to get NGP (Non-Gardening Partner) onto their construction...

The end of the Hump Garden is now a much improved shape - I checked from the upstairs windows - and I've planted green coarse-leafed carexes, a flax, and some purple flowering hebe shrubs. I've added horse manure and mulch, and the hoses are on. This part of the Hump Garden gets irrigated and can be easily reached by my little hoses.

 Possibly a Persicaria.
Unknown Foliage Plant

I wonder about the sad pink rugosa roses coming in here to live. The soil is fairly sandy - The Hump is an old sand dune formed years ago on the flood plain of the Waimakariri River. But there's fresh air and sunshine, and rugosa roses are supposed to be as tough as old boots. It's a brilliant recycling idea, and the roses will be able to be seen and admired through the house windows.

 Aargh!
Gum Leaves on the Lawn

I don't love my gum trees very much (at this time of year I could gainfully employ a professional raker), but I love the rest of my garden passionately. Happy Valentine's Day!

Friday 15th February

Ha! Just over 30mm of rain in the rain-gauge, and it's still steadily raining. Yippee! This is so good for the paddocks, all the trees, and the garden. Think of the new plants I lovingly placed in the earth only yesterday.

I am par-boiling up some home-grown beans for my hens - nothing but the best for my lovely egg-layers. Then, while gymming and swimming, I'll do some serious rose and daylily rationalising. My daylilies, for example, always start off in prime, sunny locations, but gradually the shrubs and trees they share space with make their garden area a little too shady. Well, that's my diagnosis of my daylily disappointments. Prepare for some very serious mental shifting!

Later...

It's really been too wet to garden. But I think I have my daylilies organised - they should do well in the new Glass-house Garden. I'll try the pink rugosas in the new end-of-the-Hump Garden. Some spring bulbs would be nice in here, too - packs of daffodils and tulips are already for sale in the nursery.

Mugsy the Cat :
Mugsy the cat is disabled - she has no sense of taste or smell, as well as being deaf and blind on her bad side. She's about seventeen years old - and just keeps on going!

What a nice cat mother I am! Understanding the needs of my oldest cats (Mugsy, for example, is terrified of rain) I have installed a temporary kitty-litter box in the kitchen. And I've bought a polar fleece blanket for the new cat basket. Fluff-Fluff approves, and his caramel-ginger colour against the blanket's navy blue makes a lovely sight.