Enjoy Your Garden!

Remember to enjoy your garden... Books, gardening magazines, and friends are always reminding me. And I do - honestly, I always do! But never more that this spring, September, 2010...

 Camellias, blossom trees...
Enjoying Spring in the Garden

I enjoy my garden being there, as well as me being in it. There's so much to bring joy, from the obvious to the subtle. The grand beauty of the flowering cherry trees leaves me speechless - well, apart from a gushing 'Awwwwwwww....' I have much more to say to the little speckled lettuce seedlings who have kindly self-sown themselves in a patio rose pot. 'You wee darlings - thank you, thank you, thank you...'

 This is little Milly, the merino.
Gardening With Lambs

Natural Wonder...

This spring has provided an unusual natural wonder (a rather scary earthquake) and I've needed my garden more than ever. Being in the garden has been even more important than usual, restoring my inner calm and balance. Here are three of this spring's most enjoyable (and highly therapeutic)features.

Gardening With Pet Lambs

It's been a while - I've raised only two pet lambs in the last sixteen years (George, recently deceased though natural old-sheep-age, and fat woolly Fred, still bleating strong). The year 2010 sees the total doubled. Two new-born lambs were abandoned shortly after the earthquake, so I've been looking after them.

I take my job as surrogate mother really seriously. And so I find myself carefully choosing suitable locations for lamb-gardening. This is so much fun - I must be near grass, away from crumbling stone walls or any terribly precious plants. I have to be a good ovine role model - I don't want my lambs growing up munching the mulch and the soil. Aargh! Please stop nibbling the daffodils, Milly and Stu lambs...

Noticing - and I Mean Really Noticing - the Early Rhododendrons

This spring I've wandered around the garden much more, meeting and greeting shrubs and trimming overhanging greenery in the shrubberies. And, after several years of embarrassingly late rhododendron flowering discoveries, I now know where to look. Even if I don't know the names of these early bloomers...

 The lemon and white are small flowering.
Noticing the Early Rhododendrons

Several early small-flowering rhododendrons in the gardens over the water race are covered in the prettiest blooms. And for the big blousy pink rhododendron by the path it's ready, steady, go...

Weeding Between the Daffodils

Oops. Maybe my spring weeding maintenance programme has gone up a notch - I hope so! I can't remember ever doing this in other years. But when I'm on my knees carefully detaching the undesirables I'm right up close and personal with these remarkable flowers.

 Pretty amazing!
Daffodil Designs

And so this year I've swapped vague, fluffy yellow visions (seen from afar) for the brilliant, intricate details of daffodil flower design close-up. Daffodil hybridisers definitely deserve a gold award!

Enjoy!