Plant sale heaven!

I am soooooo excited - the perennials nursery closing-down sale has lots of plants for low, low prices. Nothing is over five dollars - I am in plant sale heaven!

 Hee hee hee - I think I will return...
Nursery Sale Plants

Sunday 18th January

I've had an amazing day. First my gardening friend and I went to the perennial country nursery's closing-down sale. Oh boy! There were heaps and heaps of one-dollar pots of this and that, and we filled her car with plants. Many are weedy, and I will soak and repot them. I've never been so excited by a plant sale ever. I have new Dianthus, Irises, Thymes, Kniophofia, Hostas, Astilbes... Yippee!

 A Sam McGredy special? Not sure.
Unknown Rose

Then I gardened for three hours underneath dramatic grey skies, with booming thunder all around. There was hardly any rain (though I was prepared to retire early and watch the cricket). I weeded and trimmed my way along the water race from the Echinaceas to the Birthday Rose Garden. Quite a few new roses are blooming, ones that I've shifted around, losing their names in the process.

Sale Price Thoughts...

I thought and thought about my new plants - and possibly returning tomorrow for a second look. Dianthus, for example, would look great planted on the top of my stone wall. Hee hee hee...

 My summer clearing continues...
Gardening Cat and Wheelbarrow

I don't talk much about Jerome, my old grey tabby cat who lives upstairs. But she's hurt her leg - the one which she broke fifteen years ago, held together with rods and pins. I'm going to take her to the vet, even though she seems quite happy hopping around.

Jerome:
Jerome is the sister-cat of the recently departed Stumpy.

Jerome used to be a brilliant gardening cat, but all she does now is snooze and eat. Her secluded domain comprises one large sunny upstairs bedsitter style room, and a balcony with water bowl and personal kitty-litter box. Son-in-Law rudely calls her the Grey Ghost - he reckons he's never seen her in all the months he's lived at Mooseys.

Sunday 19th January

Today has been a day of two halves - a day of extreme extremes. First the good half - and I'll promise to try and relive the euphoria.

Because I went back to that country nursery with yet another cash float from NGP, this time in my own car so I could absolutely load up all the seats as well as the back bit. Hee hee. And I did! I bought fifty one more plants - they were all one dollar, and I have an eclectic mixture of (pauses to draw breath):

Variegated Sambucus, Artemisia, Hostas, Bamboo, variegated Yuccas, blue Convolvulus, Darmera, Santolina, perennial Lobelia, variegated Violets... But there's more: Helianthemum 'Wisley pink' and Symphytum 'Hidcote pink' - trying to be fair minded to each of those wonderfully famous English garden places...

 Growing by the water.
Daylilies and Roses

And then there are lots of pots of things for which I have no names, more irises, more Dianthuses... Oh boy - what a wonderful morning! It needed to be, to balance out the afternoon, when I went to the dentist. Aargh!

Welcome to the Year of the Moosey Teeth

2009 is now officially known as the Year of the Moosey Teeth. Big money needs to be spent on the Moosey teeth - the sort of money which could employ someone to build my stone tower, or buy a kitset rustic garden shed, or pay for a garden tour to France. This is so unfair, and makes my ninety dollar spending spree (totalled over two visits) at the nursery seem rather insignificant. And Non-gardening Partner obviously cannot be expected to provide a cash float for the Moosey Teeth. Along with my perennial purchases, the new rustic pump house has already used up all this month's petty cash... Hmm...

 This rose was shifted last year - and finally is flowering for the first time.
Another Unknown Rose

Puzzling Cat News

Jerome the hop-along-on-three-legs cat isn't better. but when I gently touch her bad leg for a home diagnosis she just purrs - really loudly. Jerome! So I have no idea what isn't working and what, if anything, is her level of discomfort. Enter the Moosey vet, I think.

By the way, I did three hours of gentle, thoughtful gardening today. I dead-headed more roses, and found more new ones flowering for the first time. I potted up some of my newly purchased perennials, cleared gum leaves from the Driveway, watered the pots, planted daisies in the house planter box, and weeded out more Lychnis plants. I would have planted my dollar hostas if I'd managed to find my lost spade. Oops - now there is no spare money to replace lost garden tools...

Tuesday 22nd January

Jerome's leg is a puzzle. It's not broken, there's nothing obviously wrong, no apparent pain, and she did put some weight on it on the vet's table. But back home she's reverted into a happily purring three-legged hopper. She goes back for an X-Ray in one week. My vet does not look forward to having to operate - a seventeen year old cat is not a safe patient under anaesthetic.