Garden happiness...

What do I want to achieve today? Garden happiness! Let's try again, something more specific please. What do I want to achieve today? Sorry, nothing more specific. Just garden happiness.

 Full of Azaleas.
The Jelly Bean Border

Now I should know by now what brings me garden happiness. It's not just about watching fluttering butterflies and marvelling at roses. It's about organic matter and mulch - NOT sitting in piles and bags, but lovingly spread. And shrubs - NOT struggling in the dry winds, but being watered. It's about weeds - NOT being left in the soil to multiply, but being removed, by hand. And it's about visible improvements! So that when I wander over to the cottage to have morning tea with Minimus (my grey cat) I can feel proud and garden-happy. Look at that! I did that!

Morning Tea...

Ha! I've already spread fifteen bags of horse manure onto the new rose garden. Yes, there is always a new rose garden - somewhere! I've gathered up old forget-me-nots and laid them on top as mulch.

And now I'm off to check in with Minimus. I'll walk past the new Azaleas in the Jelly-Bean Border and the rhododendrons in flower. Aha! Visible improvements!

Much, much later...

So I watered the new lawn, and then shifted the hose onto the Azaleas. And then I saw - or, rather, I didn't see - the edge of the pond paddock garden by the cottage. So I spent the next two hours digging out mainly Alkanet (onto the bonfire it went), pulling out forget-me-nots (onto the garden they went as mulch), and raking up stuff (lots of dried oak leaves etc). I redug the edge of the garden - it's just a teensie weensie bit bigger, hee hee - and replaced all the stones. I planted some annual Orlaya and Salvias in the gaps.

 Spot the Fred cat!
New Garden Edge

But was I finished? Not yet! I raked up two barrowfuls of gum tree mess to encourage my bonfire, and pulled out some more Alkanet. I just kept on going. Minimus kept an eye on me, hiding under the cottage's Agapanthus - this is her garden area.

A spot of cat-wrestling, anyone?

At one point Fred slunk over, nosy as ever, keen for a spot of cat-wrestling. Minimus indicated her displeasure (howl, growl, hiss) and Fred, in a bully-boy-cat mood, made ready to leap. I threw a huge clump of forget-me-nots over him, and he had to spent the next half hour cleaning the sticky seeds off his fur. Hee hee.

 A large flowered single rose.
Complicata Rose

What goes around...

But what goes around comes around - my gardening shirt got covered in sticky biddi-bids too, far too many to remove. So I've thrown it in the rubbish, I'm afraid. Sorry, Fred! You can't exactly throw your fur out...

Aargh! The big shrub rose Complicata is flowering, and I often miss it (it's hidden in the Wattle Woods, and only blooms once). Where's my camera? I must keep up with such beautiful things.

My fingers are really achy, but that's OK. I can still shift the hoses and poke at the bonfire. Yeay! I reckon that garden happiness has been achieved. And without a list, too. Wondrous!