A gold medal for effort?
I think the Olympics start this weekend. Olympic gardening is what I need to be doing - perhaps a gold medal as a reward for effort? Let's see... I have New Zealand natives to plant (no point in them sitting in their pots by the garage), streams to organise, beds to weed, leaves to rake...
Friday 13th August
I could continue this Olympic theme throughout the gardening week - perhaps I could devise a Decathlon of gardening tasks... Enough procrastinating! It's far, far better that I just get out there and start something. Back soon, hopefully with some new flowering shrub to report on - go the Camellias!
Wattle Tree in Flower
Saturday 14th August
I have just been watching the Olympic opening ceremony, thinking about gardening - I see my Pittosporums proudly marching on stubby little legs behind their flag bearer. Hmm...
Pittosporum :- Pittosporums are wonderful shrub-trees, and have great evergreen foliage.
Anyway, yesterday I made a good start on the new area in the Hump. It's a very pretty area - a strange description, but with bigger trees overhead and cleared ground underneath it's almost magical. I've laid out a path, edged with old logs - a restrictive but sensible way to start - and planted several of the new Pittosporums. Today I plan to buy some pots of Renga Renga for edging, Hebes and Corokias for filling, and maybe some flaxes.
Let the Gardening begin!
Later, Apres-Gardening...
My new native garden is well started - all the plants are in, and the composty soil humps are spread around. It looks great! I've planted three Cortaderia Richardii - they are definitely, absolutely definitely South Island New Zealand pampas grass (Toe Toe). I suspect that existing clumps of this grass which I have always claimed to be native have been the Argentinian variety. Oops! There is still a large area to organise, but I've made excellent progress.
Large Pink Azalea Close-Up
I am off outside now with camera to capture images of my successful garden day. The wriggling stream has a new longer pipe, so I expect to see the Wattle Woods end-pond full of water. I love my garden.
The New Native Garden
Sunday 15th August
It's the perfect weather for enjoying real rather than gardening Olympics - in other words it's raining. I am going outside to check the wee stream though - eek! Will there be major flooding?
Moosey Wetlands?
Should I rethink the whole area, and turn it into a wetland? Yesterday we passed two Pukekos on the road outside - they're New Zealand native birds, swamp hens, and not usually seen out here - maybe they could come and live at Mooseys? Pukekos would certainly have more ornamental value (bright blue with bright red beaks) than the semi-resident ducks (who continue to flap away whenever I approach).
Miniature Daffodils
And speaking of ornamental colour - there is white and pink Prunus blossom, and there are miniature yellow daffodils out, and a few Camellias (pinks and reds) which have never ever before been photographed are just starting to flower...
It has now been raining all morning. And so much for my latest dreams about a Moosey Wetlands - the stream has yet again stopped running. Should I get in a new engineer? Humph...
Snow on the Garden Bench
Later...
Eeek! It's just above zero degrees and snowing! And yesterday the temperature was a mild sixteen degrees! Weird weather - I wonder how rooster and the hens are?
Monday 16th August
Lots of the snow has melted this morning. My goodness - one minute the flaxes were drooping and the white hen was well camouflaged. Now it's green and pleasant again - as if nothing happened! I probably won't get into the garden today - I'm enjoying the sunny warmth inside of my house, peeping out. It's important to enjoy the winter garden ambience this way round. And it's rather cold out there!
Tuesday 17th August
It's snowing on and off again. As an intrepid four-seasons gardener I have already been outside three times. I scared the ducks out of the water race again. Rooster (in a crowing competition with a far neighbour) and hens are sheltering in the glass-house - hmm...
As a spring statement I've picked a small posy of daffodils for the house. But it's just a little cold - I have retreated inside with an incredibly cold nose. I might just have to sit, eat, and read the day away. Or I could zoom outside every hour taking snow photographs...
Wednesday 18th August
Hmm... Winter... This will teach me for being rude about the so-called summer weather the London Moosey Team have been experiencing. Sorry!
Snow on a Spring Daffodil
Friday 20th August
I'm back! - after snow, rain and work - this morning I have some serious rose pruning to do (I mustn't forget the Ballerina roses in the Pond Garden). My Olympic gardening week has turned out a bit like New Zealand's Olympic medal quest. Hmm... no luck as yet...
I haven't remotely finished the winter clean-up, so hopefully today I can zoom around the garden with edge clippers and secateurs and do some sensible damage. Sometimes I just wish that the whole garden could be uniformly organised for once - all the beds and gardens at the same time. Perhaps this only happens with hired help?
But then - what on earth would I have to write about each morning?