Garden Journal 2023

Welcome, 2023, to my garden and my life in general. Please let your surprises be good ones. Please be full of good gardening, kindness, and moderation - not too much growth from all my lovely leafy trees, not too many extreme weather events, and so on. Here's hoping for lots of great gardening energy, and a garden journal that's positive, lively, and not too boring!

Happy New Year for 2023...: Happy New Year for 2023. Please be a good year! Last year I gave up on the rose I'd planted (years ago) for world peace. It looked dead, so I chopped all the canes down. Today, a tiny ray of sunshine - one short new stem with one flower. Yeay! When escaping into the garden one must never give up hope.
Easy as!...: This summer holiday gardening lark is so easy. One puts on a long sleeved cotton shirt, grabs a sunhat, slops on sunscreen, and does two gardening sessions : first thing in the morning and last thing in the afternoon. Easy as. In between times, one plays the piano, works on the summer jigsaw, does some web-gardening, and re-reads Harry Potter...
Summer cricket... ...: Have spent many of these last days listening to test match cricket commentaries on the radio - Australia playing South Africa in my daytime, then New Zealand playing Pakistan into the evening. Summer cricket! Yeay!
Tidy up that spiral!...: I love being a Facebook gardener, so to speak. A friend in Florida liked my brick Herb Spiral, and asked questions about its dimensions and plan (oops - I didn't really have one). She also asked me for tips - aha! The surest way to a gardener's heart - ask for advice!
Big, beautiful......: My garden looks beautiful. Things in the borders are getting bigger (Phormiums) and even bigger (trees). And when the space between them and me is a beautifully mown paddock-lawn, big is definitely beautiful.
Wild cats!...: Love my cats. Love looking after my cats. I'd like to think that they love me in return. Surely this is not too much to ask when I provide lovely food and good company?
Feature the features!...: As well as rambling paths, over-grown borders, and floppy dahlias, I have some interesting features in my garden : stone retaining walls, bridges, a Koru styled brick courtyard, a brick Herb Spiral, an ornamental pond and so on. I need to make features of these lovely features!
Picking up the pieces......: What did I do yesterday? I picked pieces of gum tree bark off the gardens and lawns. What should I be doing today? Picking up pieces of gum tree bark, And tomorrow? Etc. Etc. Etc.
Flowers for the house......: What's the nicest garden activity to do first thing in the morning? Wander around picking flowers for the house. So many to choose from, though (alas) some of the mid-summer lovelies (like the Shasta daisies) are a bit stinky.
A lazy month?...: Goodbye January. You've been a rather lazy month - well, not exactly you, more so your Head Gardener and her Non-Gardening Partner (who has spent most of the new year on holiday). A month can't really have its own personality, I guess. But all is well, and your dahlias are gorgeous.
Somewhere......: Oh dear. There is a path in here - somewhere, in here... Have just been struggling to get through the shadier end of the Hump Garden. Some of the loveliest trees, like the Cercis, have put on unprecedented growth. What comes first - a tree or a path? The path might come first chronologically, but it moves when the tree grows too big.
Too hot......: So February has arrived with a blast of hot, hot air, temperatures in the low thirties. Good jigsaw and book reading weather. Difficult to do much enjoyable gardening. Just too hot.
Good news......: Lots of good news. Firstly, the temperature last evening and this morning is slightly cooler. Only slightly, but phew! This is very timely, as my garden is so summer-scruffy. And I'm missing my cottage (it's been too hot to sleep in).
Not fair!...: It's still too hot for me to be happy gardening, even first thing in the morning or after sundown. I am doomed (for now) to wander aimlessly around my garden in the shade, just looking. And seeing so much that needs doing! Not fair!
Two things......: If I could ask for one thing : please can I have cooler daytime temperatures? Oh - can I make that two things? Can I also please become re-energised and recharged, thus able to work tirelessly for long hours, recreating the serene, restful garden I used to have. These two requests are somewhat inter-related.
Remote......: All those pages with me moaning away about it being too hot to garden - am ashamed of myself, being so safe, well away from cyclone troubles and subsequent flooding up north. I've been rather remote from my garden these last few days...
Team Weather!...: Looking wistfully back over my last week, which has been dominated by the weather. We have been completely in unison. If the weather behaved, so did I. If not, me neither. Team Weather!
Looking backwards......: So the first thing I have to do today is clean up last week's mess. Aargh! Such a sad, backwards-looking thing to do. Should clean my mess up at the time I make it, yes?
The longest list......: I have just written the longest list of things that I need to do in the garden. When I say long I mean long! I divided the garden up into twenty distinct areas, with one page for each. I filled up every page with stuff to do! Then I collated and cross-checked everything and produced even more pages. Way over the gardening top!
More about the longest list......: More about my huge list full of much needed garden improvements (twenty pages of detail, plus three collated master-lists) : plants to be shifted, plants to be potted up, new plants to buy, hee hee. I will be digging and shifting things for weeks.
My Great March Gardening List...: Aha! Another great day spent working my way through my Great March Gardening List. Spent ages clearing the paths that lead from Rooster Bridge past the Camellias into the Wattle Woods. Love the spiky greenery in this part of my garden.
Swipe!...: Good morning to Speckles my stray cat. We have just had early breakfast together, sitting on the cottage verandah. Lately Speckles has been behaving like an unsettled hybrid (striped Phormiums come to mind), showing a strong tendency to revert back to his hissy, wide-eyed, wild origins...
Back to the list!...: I promised my garden I would be really good and would take notice of my large, excruciatingly detailed March Gardening List. Shut my eyes and picked a page at random - the Hump Garden.
With maturity comes common sense......: No gardening today, because it's raining again. I love the rain, but I'm not going outside to garden in it. With maturity comes common sense, and patience (that's the theory anyway). My garden and I can both wait.
Back to the Hump Garden......: Out I go, hot coffee, wheelbarrow, hand tools, rake, sunhat (even though it's a nearly-autumn sun). I am back working my way through the Hump Garden. This time I'll be starting at the house end, by the archway. Wonder how far I'll get?
Dogs, books, new roses......: Can't believe what I've just said to my dogs, who have appeared for their first morning cuddle. Told them that I quite like their stinky-dog smell. It's a warm, living, soft, friendly smell. Crikey!
Floppy dahlia time......: It's floppy dahlia time again. But of course there are solutions : stake them, or build criss-cross bamboo fences, to stop them falling over paths etc. and being a nuisance. Dahlias in the middle of the border can easily just lean against something else. But of course they don't.
Nice and not so nice......: I have big plans for today. They are nice and not so nice. One is stunning (a visit to a local rose nursery sale). Yeay! What a groovy reward this will be. I'll start off with something nice : taking the dogs around the orchard for a walk. Nice as long as Pebbles doesn't jump the fence and go into next door's paddock.
Help with the autumn clean-up?...: Would Non-Gardening Partner like to take a day off work to help me with the autumn garden clean-up? He could shred the Pittosporum branches. Don't want to put them on the bonfire - I'd much rather have mulch.
A is for April......: Oh yes. A is for April, and April is definitely Autumn. Some colder, more snuggly nights. Merino clothing, woolly socks and slippers, collecting kindling and barrowing in firewood for the wood-burner.
Four things - four days......: Four things to do - a list of four, random, and rather interesting things, a fringe list of garden tasks, if that makes sense. Item One is to carefully investigate a hole in the ground by Willow Bridge. Slimline buzzy things are flying in and out of it.
Autumn garden maintenance......: The nursery down the road is open, even though it's supposed to close on Good Friday. And am I going down there to check out their sale? No! I don't need any new plants. I will repeat that. I don't need any new plants.
Buster and the bonfire......: Today has been a bonfiring day, with lots of dry mess, Cordyline leaves, gum tree branches, gum leaves, and so on - all needing to be burnt. Buster my elusive black cat has been spying on me - where ever I go, she goes. She watches the bonfire from high up on the top of the pergola. Silly, lovely cat.
Autumn leaves days......: So many wonderful autumn leaves days. Such beautiful colours. Am very, very blessed. What a beautiful autumn garden I have! Yeay for me, planting all those deciduous trees, all those years ago...
I'm thankful - Part One...: Good morning. I am starting the morning by listing all the things I an thankful for. Good to do this first thing, while energy levels are high. And here's a thought - make another list in the evening and compare them, hee hee. So it all starts with my cottage (a life-long dream realised, harking back to the days when I first read The Famous Five books)...
I'm thankful - Part Two...: Here's Part Two of my 'I Am Thankful' blitherings. More? There's always more. And then some...
I'm thankful - Part Three...: Sorry about this, but I haven't quite finished. Continuing the theme of things I am thankful for, I'm going back to my cottage which started off these gushing ramblings. Last night there was a huge thunder storm. I am so thankful that my cottage didn't leak...
Spend that voucher!...: A rather fun day. We are going swimming, then having brunch, then off to the house-and-garden store. I have a voucher to spend, one which I've been saving for four months. A voucher! Yippee! I can get the new plants into the ground while it's still decently autumn.
More planting......: Twelve more new plants to plant, shouldn't take much time at all, right? Hmm. Almost certainly wrong! One minute to buy a plant, one hour to plant it properly in the garden? Sometimes it can take me this long!
Thinking ahead......: Getting ready for colder weather - collecting pine cones from the front paddock, stacking firewood by the back door. Thinking ahead for the house as well as the garden.
Roses in autumn...: My goodness I love roses. They are obviously gorgeous in their main flowering season. But now, in middle to late autumn, there are isolated blooms on many of the rose shrubs. And some have saved their second flowering flush until now. So generous.
Mellow May......: OK. So the merry (or rather the mellow) month of May has sneaked into my garden and my life. The autumn colours are just wonderful. I love the softer mood of the garden, and the sense of relief in the plants and trees. Phew! Almost time for our winter snooze.
Five Step Plan......: Hmmm... How to get rid of Alstroemeria - the orange variety, super invasive, spreading all over the place, surplus to requirements. It arrived un-noticed, attached to some rose roots, ten years ago. Here is my five-step plan :
Remembering the naughty plants......: It's so easy to remember the naughty, invasive plants that arrived unannounced, or were planted deliberately, innocently. And how embarrassing one's initial welcoming response was. For example, I really liked the orange Alstroemeria at first. Pretty colour!
Not impressed......: Am not impressed with this it's-nearly-winter moochy mood I'm in. So every day I must do something outdoorsy, even if it's frigidly cold or wet. Even if it's just walking the dogs. Only then I can give myself a tick for the day.
Winter at the gate......: Planting daffodils, digging out Alstroemeria, and buying merino wool socks - the story of my week! With rather talkative hips and knees joining in, oops. And winter at the gate, waiting to be let into the house and garden.
Sure signs......: The Phormiums look big and beautiful. The dahlias are suddenly ready to be cut down, and the Gunnera leaves have turned brown. And my wool socks parcel has arrived!
Little things......: Little things have a big impact. Like my new merino winter socks which I love. It's so easy to love socks. And the first of the winter-flowering Prunus blossom, the palest pink. So tiny, so insignificant, easily missed in a brown and green garden.
Yippee!...: Yippee for Non-Gardening Partner! He has done some chain-sawing in the garden area where the Hump Garden meets the Shrubbery. He's deconstructed six or seven large scruffy Pittosporums, and a huge Ake Ake. It makes such a difference to this rather overgrown shrubby area - everything looks lighter, and much tidier. Ne can't see it, but I can.
What do do first?...: Aargh! It's one of those 'What do do first? days. Sometimes when I take the dogs for their first walk around the garden I see SO MANY weeds and SO MUCH that needs doing. And I get back to the house and ask the obvious question...
Welcome to June......: Welcome to June, the first official winter month, month of the shortest day and the first real frosts. The month when I get into the cold water race and start chopping back the Gunnera. Brr...
Tasks for NGP......: So what would Non-Gardening Partner like to do first today? Continue chain-sawing self-seeded trees in the newly named Periwinkle Woods? Or dig out two semi-chunky unwanted rhododendrons from my friend's garden? They are going to fill up the spaces on one side of the Island Bed...
Brr......: Brr... It's a cold June day with intermittent drizzle, a bit bleak. The log-burner is going, so inside my house it's toasty warm. Outside it's not (it's seven degrees Celsius). Inside versus outside? Brr...
One path......: One path to rule them all, one path to find them, One path to bring them all, and in the garden bind them; In the Shrubbery where the Periwinkle lies. With thanks (and apologies?) to J.R.R. Tolkein and the Lord of the Rings...
Fifteen years......: Something to think about. Today I pointed at five scruffy self-sown Pittosporums in the back of the Shrubbery and Non-Gardening Partner chain-sawed them all down, taking him fifteen minutes to remove fifteen years of growth. Hmm...
The pleasure of my company......: Good morning to my garden. Guess what? You can have the pleasure of my company all day. I have no other commitments. Yeay! I'd suggest you make the most of me. Rather than make huge plans, or write a heavy-minded list, I'm just going to go outside and float purposefully around, with my wheelbarrow full of garden tools...
Moochy morning time......: One thing about a winter's gardening day - it's often too cold to work outside before 11am. So early morning in winter is a moochy time, perfect for doing a sudoko or a crossword. Today I have done some clothes-washing, some singing practice on a quirky Josquin des Prez Mass, and am now having coffee...
The niggly hip and the dodgy knee...: Good morning. Today I am going swimming, to gently remind the niggly hip and dodgy knee who's the boss. ME! I go to chamber music (Handel is the composer de jour). And when I get back home I gently remind my garden who's the boss. First I rake the Pond Paddock...
What drizzle?...: Drizzle - what drizzle? It's the weekend, I don't have to do anything, and Non-Gardening Partner cannot go flying. Aha! I'm thinking shredding, shifting rhododendrons...
An exercise in moderation......: I'm thinking that today could be another exercise in moderation garden day. It's a bit damp, perfect for scooping oak leaves on the Pond Paddock into bags. And I want to widen the Pond Paddock garden just a little. I'm allowed!
Catching up......: I need one of those much needed catch-up gardening days - finishing off stuff in the Pond Paddock that I started some days ago. It's very soggy and damp out there, and I reckon I have two hours max before I get too wet and too cold.
An heirloom list?...: So what's on my list for the refreshing of the Pond Paddock? I wrote items down on a piece of paper which got drenched in my gardening jeans pocket. It looks like an heirloom list, a historical scribble worth drying out and filing somewhere.
Damp and drizzly......: Blast! Another damp and somewhat drizzly day, and I honestly was going to spend a lot of it gardening. I had visions of dryness, maybe some sun. Alas, not to be. For the record, this June has been very wet.
Morning coffee......: Sitting on my patio table with my morning coffee. Yes! What a beautiful morning - no rain! Sunshine = happiness! I started writing down my plans on paper. A nice, old-fashioned thing to do, a lovely, positive thing, yes?
Spend my vouchers......: Went off this morning planning to spend my vouchers on new plants. But it was too soon. The whole point of vouchers is to think, change one's mind, and think again. To get maximum enjoyment, voucher spending needs to be a long, drawn-out process, hee hee...
Collaborative lists......: Have discovered something profound. List writing is so much more fun when done together with another gardener, preferably a gently instinctive gardener who is not too bossy. For example, a lovely daughter!
Winter colours......: A rainy weekend, puddles in the driveway and the house lawns. The garden is very wet and wintry looking. But wait! The first Camellias are flowering. Those clever enough to be planted with frost shelter are just loving this weather. Such pretty reds and pinks in the middle of all the greens and browns.
Yet another list!...: Daughter, she who helps me write amazing lists, has returned. So I took her around the Hump Garden. We looked at the paths, talked about which plants needed shifting, and so on. And yes - I wrote yet another list. Surely lists are like roses - one can never have too many of them?
Treasures......: I've had a wonderful couple of winter's days filled up with friends, music, and treasures. Mainly non-gardening ones, oops. Yesterday I had breakfast with a friend, then I found some old-school thick wooden animal jigsaws at the Op shop. Yeay! I love these.
Not a make-over?...: My re-organising (am not calling it a make-over) of the Hump Garden continues. Have re-established the lower path past Rosa Woodsii. Strange rose. Suddenly last year lots of canes died. I thought species roses just went on and on for ever...
A good sulk......: Warning : some of the following content might be annoying for people who have little sympathy for sulkers...
Slow birds......: Morning coffee at the patio table watching the birdies feeding. Arrivals are very slow this year, with no big flocks of wax-eyes, and no metallic-sleek starlings as yet. But I have a blackbird by the pond who whistles the first three triplets of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Maybe not in C-sharp Minor, but very musical!
Re-defining myself...: Am sooooo embarrassed to have sulked in public. And to have broken the first rule of blogging, namely : never, ever write your journal when grumpy. Nobody wants to read about grumpy. Harden up, princess! Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, and don't mess with Mister In-Between...
Wet weather gardening legend...: It started heavily raining yesterday afternoon. The rain continues to bucket down. But guess what? I am a wet weather gardening legend.
My Rain Plan......: So it keeps on raining. But I will not let the rain dictate what I do. I want to be in my garden. Sensible time limits and warm, light-weight, easily washed clothing are needed.
Being silly and random......: Being silly and random can be heaps of fun, especially when one is gardening, or looking after cats. But it's not fun when one loses one's wallet...
Semi-Mature Winter Gardener...: Please allow me to introduce myself : Mary Moosey, Semi-Mature Winter Gardener, Lover of the Outdoors in the Cold and the Wet, Expert Thrower of Tennis Balls for Winnie the Dog. Hee hee.
Hello August...: Hello, August, and Winnie, the best ever dog-company in the garden. But what a daft Day One - a warm norwest wind is blowing and it's a warm sixteen degrees Celsius. Hey, winter! What's up? Have you got the sulks? Not that I'm complaining...
A triumph?...: My first August week has been a triumph. I've done lots of rose pruning, lots of Phormium trimming, lots of weeding. Lots. And I have all of August to get everything ready for spring. There are lots of days in August -I am feeling very optimistic!
Which Fred?...: Dear Fred. Dear other Fred. Two lovely big boy cats, turning into winter house cats, easily found hanging around near the house. And appearing in the garden when the sun's out. So which is which? Have to pat their heads to find out. At the moment Red Fred has the nickname 'Scab-Head Fred'. Wonder why?
Dear Tiger......: Almost three years ago one of my much loved cats, Tiger the Tortoiseshell, was buried in the Hump Garden, with spiky pink dahlias to one side of her, pink roses to the other, Miscanthus behind her, and pretty polyanthus flowers on top.
Sorry dogs......: Sorry dogs. I'm off out again today, can't be helped, am proof-reading some important university assignments, it's what I sometimes do instead of gardening and hanging out with you two. Apologetic woof...
Fun, fun, fun......: Oh yes. Definitely yes. Fun, fun, fun. Winter garden can be lots of fun. Especially in a big garden with a whole lot of different garden areas...
Fingers and brain......: Weeding and playing the piano are two wonderful work-outs for the fingers as well as the brain. Yes, one does have to think when weeding - otherwise all the pretty little self-seeded flowers would be pulled out and the nasty grasses left behind.
Blurred?...: Why do gardening days sometimes get blurred? Because one often does exactly the same things each day. And gardening years? Yes, they get fairly blurred, too. Time plays sneaky tricks on gardeners.
Gardening and piano playing......: A wonderful week full of gardening and piano playing - the perfect balance. And am I slowly making progress slowly on both fronts? Yes. And thoroughly enjoying the challenge.
Small scale weeding......: It's time for removing small-scale weeds - the innocuous little tiddlers which hide away under proper plants. This is quite hard on the fingers. But out they must come, and I'm not a hoe-happy gardener, preferring to get down quite close to the dirt.
From me to me......: Yippee! A box load of seedlings I ordered online has arrived. It is one of my advance birthday presents - from me to me. Decided to outsource some of my seedlings this year to save time.
My birthday week......: Am loving my birthday week. So far it has felt very balanced. I am working hard at everything, doing my best in the garden, trying to be kind to my hands and fingers. Am enjoying playing my piano.
Down come the trees......: Woo hoo! The tree men are here, bright and early. They are bringing down a huge gum tree at the end of the Hump. I've shifted two Rhododendrons and three ornamental Phormiums out of their way.
THE day......: It's my actual birthday day - a most gorgeously warm spring day - and Non-Gardening Partner is taking the day off work to start clearing the Oak trees. Yeay! How old am I? My element for this year is Tungsten, hee hee...
Scary spring......: The beauty of spring in my garden is starting to scare me. Aargh! The big fluffy blossom tree! Eek! The Forsythia in flower. Wow! Green growth and daffodils! Oh dear! Must remember to enjoy everything. Oh no! The weeds...
Wonderful and weedy......: Spring continues to be wonderful, and weedy. But of course one has to take the good with the not so good. In a garden, gushing for joy can easily alternate with groaning in dismay.
Really really busy......: I've been really really busy, and so has the wind. That blasted wind, busy blowing off the blossom on my flowering cherry tree. Me - singing, performing on piano, practicing my ballet moves...
Piles of piles......: Oh boy. Sometimes the requirements of a country garden are super-sized, and I rather envy my urban friends, whose biggest struggle is to fit everything into their green bins. Most country gardeners I know don't have green bins. They have piles of piles...
Busy hedge trimmers...: The local hedge trimmers have been busy - on a drive cross-country we passed lots of sharply defined shelter hedges, and quite a few smoky paddock bonfires. Alas, we've joined the party.

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