So close...

 So pretty.
Filipendula by the Pond

It's those same old two phrases, I'm afraid. Out they come again, and they are inexorably connected. 'I did my best'. 'But I didn't finish'. Aargh! So many times have I whispered these, trying not to feel garden-guilty.

Saturday 9th January

Yes, today I did my best but I didn't finish. Again. Story of my gardening life. My friends have given me piles of old newspaper. The lady round the corner has dropped in fifteen more bags of horse manure. Necessary ingredients to finish my new Pond Paddock garden extension. This was my intention. To finish it.

But I didn't. Why not? I did get sidetracked and wandered off to clear the garden behind the pond. I removed and divided a clump of Renga Renga growing over the path there, and those pieces are now planted along the edge of my new garden. That was always part of the plan, see. I also moved one of the golf-ball Pittosporums, ever so gently, towards the new edge. I watered everything, though tonight the big irrigation will run and soak everything much more efficiently. But still...

 The new summer-shade garden in the Pond Paddock.
Almost, Very Nearly, Oh So Close to Being... Finished!

This new garden is designed ('fated' might be a better word) to be a no-nonsense summer-shady area, mulched and planted with whatever rough tough evergreens I can pinch from elsewhere. Anyway I think it looks lovely, a huge improvement on the mossy not-really-lawn that was there. And it is so close to being finished. Shakes head in disbelief. One more hour would have done the business, but I'm hungry and I need to cook the evening meal. And I want to look at my latest photographs, too.

 Edged with Renga Renga - Rock Lilies.
Wattle Woods Path

Maybe tomorrow? Hmm...

Friday 10th January

Sheepish is not the word. Nor is mortified. I am extremely embarrassed that I fizzled out yesterday. It was only 4:15. So much of the day was ahead of me. I wasn't even tired, just being a lazybones. Actually, I was awake for an hour or so in the middle of the night remonstrating (great word) with self and sorting out today's plan of action. Here it is :

  1. Stones : I can 'borrow' stones from a wee path in the nearby Wattle Woods. This wee path goes nowhere, built in a random quasi-artistic moment when I thought such a concept was cute. Well it isn't. It's a waste of resources, and I never use it. Ha! Stone problem solved.
  2. There's still some mulch in a pile in the Jelly Bean Border - Non-Gardening Partner smugly pointed it out yesterday. Mulch problem solved.
  3. I still have newspapers. NGP buys a new one each morning on holiday, then sits around and falls asleep in his chair reading it.
  4. I still have eleven bags of horse manure.

So I scrape the remains of lawn off the new path and mulch it. I decide on the curve shape of the very last bit of new garden. I dig, cover, and edge it. I trim any long grass which is staying as grass.

 And bee.
Agapanthus

Find suitable plants...

Then I wander around finding suitable shade-tolerant plants to transplant into the gaps. Perhaps liberate some evergreens stuck in pots, divide some more Rock Lilies (Renga Renga), and so on. Absolutely no rhododendrons allowed. And, obviously, roses are out of the question. Agapanthus? Might not flower, but the foliage is gorgeous.

Done. In my head, that is.

Three hours later, lunchtime...

Done. On the ground. Yeay! The new garden is finished. It is a groovy, shaped like the sole of a very fat foot. Am just having a cup of tea and some raspberry muffins. Confession : I really only made them to lick at the raw mixture. Nine have survived my marauding spoon and are cooked. Sometimes one just needs a sugar fix, I reckon. Now I just have to clean up my mess and realign the paths.

 In the ferns.
Pebbles

Much later...

Yeay! My garden project is now properly finished, and the paths are organised. To make up for yesterday's dribbly gardening I did some ferocious digging in the Wattle Woods, mainly removing old Carexes. All I can really think of to plant in here underneath the big gum trees is Agapanthus. The interior is in a bit of a mess. Tomorrow's task, maybe?

It is finished!

I rescued some little pieces of spotty Ligularia and a green flax, and divided more Rock Lilies. These are now planted in my new garden, which is finished. Finished. Can you believe that? Finished. Yeay. It is possible to finish something.

As a reward NGP is taking me for a wee car ride. We are checking out a bulk pet food (no additives) supplier. Will buy some samples and if the cats don't like them - well, guess who will? The dogs, who will eat anything : maggotty rabbits, live wriggling mice, dead birds (feathers and all). Hmm... Dog-kiss, anyone?