Punctual...

Aargh, November! Or should I say welcome, November. How nice that you've started, and by golly you're punctual - in fact, haven't you popped in just a bit early? I'm thinking of all the things I haven't finished from last month...

 A wonderful sunny place.
The Wattle Woods

Monday 1st November

And what season do you wish to be categorised under? 'Late spring', I think, until the rhododendron flowers start to wilt in the heat, and while the blossom still half covers the flowering cherry trees in the Pond Paddock - before the big winds blow it all away.

 Well, that's what I call this little flowering ground cover.
Snow in Summer

Should Have...

Today I really should have got up early when there was no wind and sprayed all the roses. But I didn't. And by now I should have done at least one hour of gardening. But I haven't, choosing instead to munch toast and watch a recording of the final of New Zealand's Next Top Model. And now I'm cross - the girlie I liked was eliminated. What a goose this older lady can be sometimes. Just sometimes?

My garden awaits. I'll put on the hoses and continue the great Honesty clean-up. I also have pea-straw to spread on the new Shrubbery gardens, too. So far this spring my mulching has produced a wonderful crop of peas - go, you little nitrogen-fixers, go! Back soon.

Later, Lunchtime...

I have redeemed myself already - I've a logical watering system going, concentrating on the borders around the driveway. I've been pulling out Alkanet and Honesty, and trimming prunus suckers. And I'm paying attention to smaller details (like repotting a red Cordyline and a variegated Pieris, picking sage cuttings, and so on). I've had lunch in the Driveway Garden seats, and now I'm back off outside to do even better.

Wisteria :
Have a peep at the latest spring photographs of the house Wisteria.

How quickly things change - not a bad thing to notice, as long as I don't panic. Already the Wisteria flowers on the patio pergola are at that half-full, half-empty stage, with old petals from the top of the racemes fluttering down. Many more roses are starting, and the first yellow daylilies too.

It Must Be Iris Time...

It must be iris time - I must remember to keep checking. So far only the translucent white irises are out. Irises on the whole puzzle me. I can have a glorious patch flowering, I think I'm doing the right thing by dividing them (at the right time), then I replant them and wait for years, and years... Other irises flower with neglect, and then some in the best positions (full sun, tubers on the surface) just refuse to ever send up a flower stalk. Hmm...

 These irises are flowering really well...
Yellow Irises

Tuesday 2nd November

Hmm... I went off around the garden late yesterday to peep at the irises - I was expecting various colours, little smoky blues, the purple mixtures, and so on. One large clump of yellows was flowering, obviously because I haven't done anything to them for years. But elsewhere - not a peep! Saying hello to iris leaves and more iris leaves is - underwhelming? Oh well.

 My lovely tabby girl.
Histeria on a Post

Rose Spraying

I'm up really early today to do the rose spraying, so early that it's quite chilly. The house is completely catless, and Stu the pet lamb is still asleep underneath his rose. Here I go - on with the big knapsack. Death to rust and blackspot (and the odd million aphids who have escaped my little hand puffer). All the Aquilegias are horribly covered with aphids, crawling up and down the flower stems - yuk!

Later That Morning...

I am distressed! Just because I am a sook (spelling?) about pastels, doesn't mean that I can let Campion and Alkanet smother my roses. I've just sprayed three quarters of the roses, and many are submerged in a weedy sea of green, with tiny pink and blue flowers - this 'abandoned cottage garden' look is just not worth it. I'm going straight back outside to dig them all out.

Right. It's mid-afternoon and I am a success - eight barrowfuls of mess have been dug and dumped by the fence-line (except that I haven't even tried to get all the fat fleshy Alkanet roots out). Oh well - think positively. At the end of winter Alkanet fills up the garden rather nicely with green. Think negatively - this dreadful weed seems to have popped itself into all my garden borders, and I can't see myself ever getting rid of it. Blast!

'Just do what you can, be proud of good day's garden work, and don't get gloomy.'
-Moosey Words of Wisdom.

The garden is getting really dry - my little hoses seem to make little difference, and then I get sadder and sadder. Cheer up, M. The spring-summer transition is always a bit fraught - just do what you can, be proud of good day's garden work, and don't get gloomy.

Remember you started at 7am (that's early!) spraying the roses, and that means you've been pottering around, in other words doing your gardening work, for nearly eight hours. Well done, you. Time to have a shower, choose a book (maybe a Hercule Poirot - you like him), rest and read for a while on the verandah of your beloved Pond Cottage.

 Hee hee. Yet another view, from the glass-house.
Pond Cottage in the Rugosa Roses

And I wouldn't suggest playing any of those drattedly difficult Albeniz piano pieces until the Moosey mood is more robust...