Shovelling compost...
Rhododendron Spring Dance
Tra-la-la. I know where I'm gardening, and I know who's gardening with me (my dog). I know what I love... Except I will be shovelling compost all day, but that's OK. Change the last singing line to 'I know what my garden loves', perhaps...
Tuesday 27th September
The rhododendron Spring Dance is flowering in the garden I'm cleaning up today - it's a wee cutie, with clear lilac blooms. But first I think I'll have a hot coffee - it's early morning, and still a wee bit nippy. I also have a tiny list to present to myself. I need to put the hoses on, water the new plantings, plant the roses in Cottage Garden, and check on the seedlings in glass-house. Easy peasy...
Later, Lunchtime...
Sometimes I am so nicely hopeless! Popping behind the Stables to check on the hairy-leafed Bergenias (yes, they are starting to flower), I enjoyed (not the word) the busiest meet-and-greet session with a plethora (a good word) of weeds. So naturally I dropped to the ground and started weeding.
Bergenia
Looking Lovely...
And the result three hours later? This garden is now looking lovely, with fresh peony growth nicely leaning on the new metal plant supports I've provided. Only three barrowfuls of compost have been spread, around those freshly weeded bits, of course. But I did divide a patch of rather elongated Heuchera...
How am I going to keep my energy up? Apart from smoked salmon on Turkish bread, yum... I'll have to pretend that this afternoon is another this morning, if you know what I mean. Here goes. Tra-la-la. I know where I'm gardening...
Much, Much Later...
I have been gardening for just under eight hours - probably my biggest day ever. EIGHT hours!!!! By the end the feet were shuffling - I had to squint my eyes as I plodded past weeds, pushing wheelbarrows full of compost. But my day has just been grand. I've planted roses around the Cottage, and transplanted in foxgloves, Lychnis and Gazanias, scraped and weeded the back pond path, spread compost here there and everywhere, watered things - even the seeds in the glass-house. Tomorrow I'll prick them out - the lettuces are ready for such, and I think the heirloom tomatoes have just germinated.
Pond Cottage
And I finished my burning my bonfire rubbish. I reckon I've trudged for miles (kilometres) and I'm ready for a cold beer with the evening meal.
Wednesday 28th September
I'm still overwhelmed with pride about yesterday's super long, super glorious gardening day. I love working at the back of the pond, with the peaceful sounds of dribbling water, the good company of gnomes sitting contentedly by the water's edge, sunlight through the greenery, pond reflections of Phormium leaves, my beloved Pond Cottage just over the water...
My Pond
Pity about all the weeds I kept on seeing, and the messy lawns which need mowing... But gardening has its own comforting balance, and today I'm off to do some gentle weeding. I can do this! I love being outside, anyway, and I keep on seeing new spring things.
Late Lunchtime...
I need to blog in this garden journal! Self-affirmation is vital. I work ridiculously long hours in my garden, and whenever I take a deep breath to talk about my day with Non-Gardening Partner - well, he gets a sort of bored, glazed look. And all I want to tell him is positive things, not moan about the raggedy nature of the lawn mowing. Now a journal, or blog, is so much more satisfactory, hee hee...
Tree Peony :- Just the one Tree Peony grows in my garden - it's a lovely burnt terracotta colour.
All morning I've been working near the Willow Stump. I've trimmed ferns and grasses from the edge of the water, weeded, identified a hosta to divide and shift, and raked the paths. The tree peony is just sprouting its new foliage. It's huge this year, and was flattened a bit by the winter snow storm, but nothing really broke off. Phew!
The low growing yellow rhododendron is flowering, and the surrounding forget-me-not blue flowers look gorgeous. I love them! They're nicely smothering lots of the weeds, for now...
Spring Gunnera Growth
Thursday 29th September
I'm going to have a less bendy day today. Seeds to sow, seedlings to prick out, and plants to repot in the glass-house - these are my first tasks. I've also got the hoses on, and I promise to move them every hour. Back not so soon.
Later...
What a leisurely, nicely gentle day I've had! I did some regulation weeding, and finished up spending nearly an hour in the water race, pink and tingling in my old-lady underwear (phew!), trimming ferns from the banks. Then my legs and feet got too cold, so I hopped myself warm around the bonfire, hoping that nobody would arrive.
The big pink rhododendron by Middle Bridge has just started to flower - it's one my spring sentinels. The green Gunnera in the water is getting bigger and bigger - such a pretty, fresh, spring green. And there are pretty little pansies everywhere, all self-sown, in assorted colours hybridised by the bees. I think mid-spring has arrived.
The Cat and The President
Friday 30th September
OK. Yesterday I took this photograph of Fluff-Fluff the cat on the Wattle Woods path. Alas, it had lots of lumpy green weeds on the path mulch, so I dutifully spent ages cleaning it up, using Photoshop. Ridiculous! I am an honest gardener! So that's today's absolute must-do job, and shame on me, hee hee... This is the untinkered-with version...
I also need to completely repot the patio pots, and decide what goes where. Things are a bit of a mess, and some plants (like the variegated Hebe Wairewa) could be better off in the ground somewhere. Others like the Aeoniums seem to have over-wintered OK. Phew!
Lunchtime...
Repotting and tidying up succulents (and other assorted plants) in patio pots is sooooooo fiddly! That's all I've done so far today, and it's taken me three hours. I've rebuilt many of the pots, breaking off pieces of - sedum? echeveria? sempervivum? and replanting shorter stubby bits.
- 'Plants in pots need regular food and water - just like people!'
- -Moosey Words of Wisdom.
Something to remember - it's time now to start looking after the patio pots properly. Plants in pots need regular food and water - just like people! I also need to have a sensible on-going watering regime for the garden. Lots of my newly planted roses (recycled, mainly) are sprouting, and must be helped into their first Moosey summer. Now I'm just having a quick lunch break before I relaunch myself.
Later...
My second gardening session of the day has been even longer - three and a half hours of mainly weeding and planting Renga Renga by the Wattle Woods path. I spent the last hour watering, sploshing buckets of pond water on the Agapanthus and the newly planted roses by the cottage. I even tried experiencing that timeless feeling claimed by avid hand waterers. I suspect they hadn't just gardened for six hours... Anyway, I got a bit restless, but the roses behind the pond each got a decent soaking from a well-directed hose.
Blue and White Violets
Just imagine how much work I would get done with a bunch of multi-me's. They'd all know exactly what needed doing, too, so it wouldn't be at all tiresome explaining that a self-sown Lychnis can sometimes be a weed, other times not. Wow. Something to think about... And do you know what would make me really, really happy? That during my very last plod of the day, whether it be from the bonfire or the glass-house with my garden tools in the wheelbarrow, I did not see one single weed requiring me to bend down and pull it out. That would be the most magical ending.