Garden Journal 2000

It may be the new millennium, but the year 2000 is just a normal gardening year. The garden keeps expanding, and I am definitely going through my stone edging phase.

Weeds, dead-heads, more weeds...Weeds, dead-heads, more weeds......
Weeds are weeded. Dead-heads are dead-headed. Edges are done. More weeds are weeded. More dead-heads are dead-headed. The same edges are done again, and so on it goes...
Out, out, gorse seedling!Out, out, gorse seedling!...
Gorse seedlings are weeded out. Rhododendrons are planted, and the local nursery bargain bin is visited and revisited. New Zealand lose the cricket again...
Looking onward...Looking onward......
The tree lucernes come down. Bulbs for spring are purchased and planted, and beds are cleaned up, as the garden looks onward to colder days...
Middle Border starts to expand...Middle Border starts to expand......
The great holiday clean-up starts. Mail order plants arrive and more daffodils are bought. Much more garden space is needed, so Middle Border starts to expand...
EasterEaster...
Easter arrives with Autumn, and the garden starts to slow down. The gardener also starts to slow down, and gets gloomy. The vegetable garden - potager plans revive her...
Plans and seeds are germinating...Plans and seeds are germinating......
The cut and chop back for winter continues, as the weather dictates the gardening activities. Plans for new borders are germinating, along with seeds in the glass-house, and there is a major project to erect a PERGOLA...
Winter settles in...Winter settles in......
Winter settles in. Gardening before ten o'clock in the morning is seriously difficult, and the trees in the Hump are starting to block the sun. Both of my sons' birthdays are in June...
Two weeks in the outback...Two weeks in the outback......
I go to Australia to spend two weeks in the outback. Then back in New Zealand, I try to catch up on the chopping and pruning...
Hints of spring...Hints of spring......
The garden starts to hint at Spring. Frosts hopefully bring death to bugs, while the clear sunny days which follow bring joy to the gardener...
Lambs and daffodils...Lambs and daffodils......
September brings lambs and daffodils and mail-order catalogues. It's a time of hope, enthusiasm and extreme optimism (and bare root roses at ridiculously low sale prices)...
New hope...New hope......
I love being on holiday in the Spring. There is such new hope in the garden at this time of year.
Things are changing every day...Things are changing every day......
October is the gardening month which races by too quickly, almost leaving the gardener behind. Things are changing every day - tulips, camellias and rhododendrons are in and out of flower...
Tree damage...Tree damage......
We suffer tree damage in a big wind storm, with enough resulting firewood to fill two wood sheds.
So much growth...So much growth......
It's November! So much growth, so many changes, so many weeds, so many aphids...
What to do with all those roses?What to do with all those roses?...
What to do with all those roses? And I keep needing more and more stones. I have gone stone-edge crazy.
Summer, family and Christmas...Summer, family and Christmas......
December means summer, family and Christmas, HOLIDAYS!, cricket, not working, the 2000-2001 Most Valuable Cat competition, not working and of course the garden...
Any time for the garden? Any time for the garden? ...
My real Christmas holiday begins - summer sun and wind, and days filled with cricket and reading - where is there any time for the garden?
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