Moosey News : April 2006
Dear Subscriber,
Please ignore all my moans and groans about rubbish burning this month! The Moosey Garden is not quite ready to cope with Autumn. However, Autumn has definitely arrived! Gardeners can easily misbehave and panic at this time of the gardening year.
This month's features :
- Garden Seats and Benches
- Dahlias
- The Local Garden Club
- The Most Valuable Pet Competition - Eight Months On
- Assorted Journal Ramblings and Mozart
Regulars :
- Plant of the Month : Graham Thomas Rose
- Animal of the Month : Charles the Ram
- Garden Quote : On Garden Lines
- Garden Gallery : Emanuel Rose
- Forum Focus : Wedding Garden or Weeding Garden?
- Gardening Advice : On Digging
- Searching for Moosey : Seats, Kittens, and Gumboots
- Coming up this month : Burning and Chipping
This month's features
1. Garden Seats and Benches
Real gardeners have to be coaxed and bribed to sit down in their own gardens. Real gardeners who try their garden-gloved hands at writing need similar pushing to write about garden seats and benches. Read why.
2. Dahlias
The Moosey dahlias occupy a casual, laid back position in my garden. Experts, semi-experts, collectors, breeders, and afficionados of the flowering dahlia should most definitely not read this article!
3. The Local Garden Club
The first thing I did when I officially retired was to ring up and join my local Garden Club. Anonymous and shy, I went on my very first outing - and just had to write about it. Hopefully I am still anonymous!
4. The Most Valuable Pet Competition - Eight Months On
Every day I click faithfully on Tiger the cat's voting box in the Most Valuable Pet Competition. It's time for a review of the animal competitions that I've been running for years. I'm hoping for an overwhelming response from clicky readers! Please do not vote for dogs or poultry. Cats rule!
5. Assorted Journal Ramblings and Mozart
The webmaster despairs of them, my family has to read them to see what I'm up to - these are my garden journal pages, with lists, pictures, advice to myself, and everyday details of the Moosey retirement. Want to know which Mozart sonata has been chosen for the Moosey personal piano practice? Check out the Moosey journal!
Regulars
6. Plant of the Month : Graham Thomas Rose
A delightful David Austin English rose - delicate of petal, softly fragrant, fragile of face - rather like the head gardener after a day spent on the great autumn burn-up. Graham Thomas has his second flower flush about now.
7. Animal of the Month : Charles the Ram
The new ram Charles has had a quiet (and sadly un-photographed) start to his life as a Moosey animal. After hiding in the hedge for the first three days (a bit of a worry), he is now in the back paddock with a select bunch of volunteer merino ewes. Charles is bred from the famous merino Sir Thomas. Be impressed!
8. Garden Quote : On Garden Lines
Forgive me for quoting myself. In a March journal page I said this: "Define a boundary line between mess-allowed and no-mess". What a good idea! Seems simple, but it could certainly stop gardening hearts and spirits breaking - particularly when trying to do a big Autumn or Spring clean-up.
9. Garden Gallery : Emanuel Rose
Later in the flowering season many of my roses are deeper, richer, and darker in colour. See if you like this Autumn photograph of David Austin's Emanuel. It is one of the roses in the Birthday Rose Garden.
10. Forum Focus : Weeding or Wedding?
Some of us in the Forum have got a bit sidetracked with weddings this month. Weddings and gardens definitely go together.
11. Gardening Advice : On Digging
Decide before you start digging. This phrase could well be applied to every gardening day. Digging in, or out, or up, or down should definitely not be attempted on the spur of the moment!
12. Searching for Moosey : Seats, Kittens and Gumboots
- Garden Seats
- 'Backless Garden Bench' - this is an easy search! Nowhere near as stylish as a backless evening gown, it's the poorly planned, uncomfortable garden seat - the seat for the D.D.I.Y. gardener (that stands for Don't Do It Yourself). I've got quite a few in the Moosey garden!
- Two Kittens
- 'One or two kittens?' What an odd question. Two, most definitely two!
- Gumboots or Wellies?
- 'Gumboots photos of'. Another odd search - or maybe not. I think these hardy gardening shoes are called other things in other lands (Wellingtons, for example, in England). A searcher could be confused by chewing gum, or gum trees... See the latest photograph of the Moosey gumboots in glorious colour.
13. Coming up this month : Chipping and Burning
It's the burning question for April - Will the head gardener suffer from burning burn-out? April is the first official Autumn month, and the Moosey fence-lines are stacked with piles of dry rubbish piles. Appropriate mess will be chipped in the neighbour's chipper. Aargh! April is looking neither creative nor appealing! Hope you have a much nicer April!
Cheers,