One of gardening life's sweet mysteries...
Some weeks I must wander around in a haze. How else would all the little Forget-Me-Nots grow so cleverly in the silliest places, and then flower - without me noticing they were there? Best not to think too hard, and just accept it as one of the sweet mysteries of gardening life.
Friday 8th November
Forget-me-nots (Myosotis, mostly pale blue, with just a few pinks and whites) have self-seeded everywhere without me noticing their early growth stages. I'm not really a laissez-faire gardener, so there must be a critical month during which I do absolutely no rough weeding or scraping of the soil surface.
Forget-Me-Nots
But their flowering time is over now, and I'm pulling them out. Let me think back - I remember doing a lot of this last year. This year I have more plants than ever. But they are so beautiful when first flowering in early spring - well worth the sticky biddi-bids on the socks and in the hair.
Ginger Percy :- This is my most favourite forget-me-not photograph. You can probably see why!
The plan for this afternoon is to remove as many barrowfuls as I can before five o'clock. This has a rather fluid feel. It doesn't stop me wandering off and doing something else, or taking photographs, or sitting on a garden seat with grey Lilli-Puss (I haven't found her yet to say hello to yet).
Yellow Daylily
Three Hours Later...
Five barrowfuls collected, added to seven bags of horse manure and some bonfire ash, and spread out on the side driveway garden, as planned. It's a little early to stop work for the day, but I have some serious TV watching to catch up on, and Fluff-Fluff the cat has heaps of sticky biddi-bids on his tail and back feet. He lies with his legs in the air and lets me pull them out. I'm not sure I'd be so trusting...
Saturday 9th November
So what should I do first today? I know! I'll pull out some more forget-me-nots. I also need to have a think about the garden in the corner of the Frisbee Lawn. This area now gets much, much more sun. Swathes of daylilies, perhaps? It needs some tough shrubs - shrubs which are OK without much irrigation. There is much room for new plants (Cordylines and Banksias were trashed when next-door's trees came down).
Rhododendrons and Roses?
There can be absolutely no rhododendrons. Roses might work, but only if they're rough old toughies, types that could survive a hundred years of neglect and still have the energy to put out a thorny cane and rip an unsuspecting gardener's trousers.
Australian Grevillia
Perhaps an Australian garden, full of cute Grevillia and Banksia hybrids? Or a Lavender garden, with swirling rows of different coloured Lavenders? A tussock and grasses garden?
Biddi-Bids
The level top edge is planted with Agapanthus (my go-to plant for difficult and dry areas) and they will definitely be staying. Anyway, I've decided not to start weeding in here until I have a plan. Seems like a good excuse!
Later...
I've removed four more barrowfuls of forget-me-nots from various gardens. I love them, honestly I do! But foolishly, in an attempt to set fashionable standards of gardening dress, I've been wearing my brand new steely blue brushed cotton gardening shirt. Brushed cotton is a biddi-bid magnet. Hundreds of sticky seeds cover the front and sleeves of my shirt. They won't come off. Blast!
Rusty the dog, too, is 'suffering' from the sticky menace. Unlike Fluff-Fluff he does not enjoy his back-end being groomed. Dogs can be so sensitive sometimes...
Biddi-Bids on the New Baby!
Actually there are biddi-bids on all my clothes at the moment. And all over the towels, and the bed sheets, and the TV couch. And there's a new baby in the family. Gardening grandmothers obviously love to visit and cuddle. But leaving biddi-bids on a brand new baby is pretty bad form! Oops.