A captive audience?
Yellow Winter Rose
Poor Non-Gardening Partner. On Saturday mornings we drive in the car to swimming. Car journeys with NGP are brilliant. He is stuck, a so-called captive audience. This morning I will remind him to dig out the weeping Silver Pear tree for me.
No, I hadn't forgotten this, the trade-off for me weeding his raspberry patch. And then there's chain-sawing - just a tiny bit more needed in the back of the Shrubbery, so my newly reclaimed path can wiggle gently over to the fence at the top of the Hump, without hitting anything woody.
Saturday 12th July
Aha! Here's the dog, freshly arrived from his kennel, flicking his food bowl around energetically. And here's NGP, who seems to be in a receptive mood. Hee hee. Off we go, wish me luck.
At the End of the Day...
It worked!
I gave NGP time and space to read the Saturday paper while I did some nice small-scale gardening. I weeded the gardens near the bonfire and pruned the roses. Small scale physically means I think small, so I'm careful not to pull out the self-sown Queen Anne's Lace seedlings. I planted the blue autumn asters which have been stuck in a bucket for a wee while. I thought about the roses, and how they might better perform for me. A dash of 'garden mix' perhaps?
Winter Herb Spiral
The soil near the Herb Spiral seems to be covered in moss. What to do? I decided to scrape it all off and put it in my wet weeds wheelbarrow. Then I wandered over to the back of the Shrubbery to show NGP my chain-saw requirements. I managed just one load of gum tree branches, and a modest bonfire, while he did all my chain-sawing. Without complaining! Nice.
Sunday 13th July
Five hours of gardening, but first, something for the soul food - Bach chamber music. Our trio did its very best, but there were distractions, like Tiger the cat rolling over the violinist's feet exposing her ample white tummy, and Rusty the dog behaving like an attention-seeking toddler. Whenever the music stopped, he'd sit quietly. When we started up again he'd scratch at the door. But no, he didn't actually want to go outside at all. He wanted the violinist (NGP) to go outside with him and dooooooo something.
Waiting Dog by Small Stone Wall
After lunch NGP and I went to the landscape gardening place and got a trailer full of 'garden mix'. It's a mix of compost and topsoil, and I had fun for the next few hours building up the Shrubbery soil by the stone wall. I also fixed the smaller stone walls outside the Laundry door and in the driveway.
Prosperity Roses :- Prosperity is such a pretty white shrub rose.
Then I hard-pruned the big archway rose (I wish I could remember its name) and two Prosperity roses by the Septic Tank (they have not been flowering well for a while now, hopefully nothing to do with their septic neighbour).
I cut down more dying fern leaves. Ferns have spread beautifully around my garden, and I don't dig many of them out. I love the unfurling of the new fern growth - the koru.
Cobblestones in the Rain...
My day finished with yet another modest bonfire. And now - smoky hair, a red wine, and le Tour! I am still struggling in the rain on the cobblestones near Roubaix.
NGP and Percy Cat :- This is my favourite photograph of Non-Gardening Partner.
So here's my report on NGP : Quite good in the garden, providing nice weekend human company. Very friendly in the car. Sprayed the moss on the brick spiral courtyard without being asked. Picked up trailer of compost, however didn't offer to do any shovelling. Forgot to dig out the weeping Silver Pear tree, and thinks he doesn't need to do any violin practice. Say - seven out of ten? Could do better?
Mossy bricks and a trailer full of compost.