Pleased to welcome SPRING...
The Moosey garden is pleased to welcome SPRING. This first spring week I promise not to mention any cold weather. I will garden every day with new life and renewed energy. And I will not tread on any emerging spring bulbs.
Wednesday 1st September - the Moosey Official Start of Spring
September 1st has been declared the Moosey Official Start of Spring. There are enough daffodils and blossom trees for the spring season to jolly well get on with it. Today there can be no looking back. The great winter clean-up is also officially over. From today on it will be called spring-cleaning.
Spring Daffodil Close-Up
What should I do first? Perhaps a gentle stroll to the glass-house to encourage my spring seedlings - or I could finish weeding the vegetable garden ready for sowing spring veges. Actually there's a lot of general weeding to be done everywhere, so I might investigate the use of a hoe (for the very first time - I tend to be a muddy-knees garden weeder). I could elegantly swish the hoe (if I can find it) back and forth and not get my stretch demins dirty...
Magnolia Stellata:- These Magnolias blossom very early - their flowers are so pretty.
This is the first spring that I've been a semi-retired gardener, so I should have so much more time to notice and cherish emerging plants - and to photograph them! There should be pages and pages written about the Camellias, thousands of time delay pictures of the Magnolia Stellata struggling into flower, and later this month twice-daily progress reports on the rhododendrons. I wonder what colours all the new ones will be? Eek!
Ha! It's lunchtime, and the Great Moosey Weeding Machine (the muddy-knees version) has been relentlessly moving around the garden - the back house lawn was chosen for my first spring weeding session. Rooster and hens followed my progress (with rather a lot of close crowing - my goodness he IS loud!) and I managed to almost avoid getting my hair tangled in the Mermaid fence roses. Now I have a short money-earning interlude, then I will be back!
Fragrant Red Wallflowers
By the way, I think my bold bluff regarding spring might have worked - it's sunny and mild outside. And there is ONE breaking bud on the Magnolia Stellata. Hee hee...
Later...
I'm sure I'm spending much more time in the garden than last year - I'm certainly writing more... Anyway, I've pruned some more roses (oops - forgot the ones by the woodshed) and weeded until my hands are too sore. I've watered my seeds in the glass-house and picked a spring bunch of flowers which include my favourite fragrant dark red wallflower. Now it's time for tranquillity and reflection (and a hot cup of coffee). Cheers!
Stumpy the Cat on the Pergola
Thursday 2nd September
...Which brings us another day closer to MY BIRTHDAY. No gardening, though - money earning instead. Oops!
Friday 3rd September
I have the whole morning to spend in the garden. Hmm... What should I do first? Please no more roses to prune (my hands are covered with nicks and scratches)...
I know I promised not to discuss any cold off-putting weather, but there is a sneakily cold wind blowing - mind you it's only 8 am, a little early to start, even for an intrepid spring gardener. Perhaps I'll start with some stacking in the woodshed, and collect up the pile of logs left in the Hump. Boring, gentle, unmemorable chores to even bother to write about - but that's gardening!
Several Boring Unmemorable Hours Later...
Exactly how boring can a garden writer get? Don't answer that! Let me say that I now have a perfectly stacked woodshed for next winter, and if there are any complaints I will bombard this web site with pictures of firewood. Ha!
Spring Daffodils!
Saturday 4th September
Aargh! My archway rose pruner - the person who is supposed to get the Wattle Woods stream going today - has gone skiing! Intrepid spring gardeners do not have time to sulk, even if their roses are ignored and their streams are not functioning.
A Beautiful Day
It's going to be a beautiful day - sun, clear blue sky, hours and hours with no distractions. I have much to do - starting with the weeding and reorganising of the end of the Dog-Path Garden. I'm going to trim the edge of the water race rather than try to weed there - this means that the channel gets a little wider (oops)...
I require cat and/or chook company (the dog is hopeless and the ducks are too timid). Human company may also be an option - I have one of my lovely children staying. This is a good thing (gourmet cooking) and a bad thing (already there are serious complaints about my midnight-crowing rooster)... Hmm... Rooster Roulade? Roast Rooster?
Middle Bridge in Winter
Working by the Water
Right - I have worked for over three hours by the water race - I love it over here, with the burbling water. No chooks for company today - just Jerome the faithful grey cat. The race edge is trimmed, and I've been clearing and weeding along the Dog-Path (which is slightly narrower, oops). It's a brilliant day to be outside - I think the Moosey Garden has come a long way this past year (like its head gardener).
Sunday 5th September
Today I am going to catch up in the glass-house. Then I will attempt to finish slicing the water race edge. Then - who knows? - I'll find something else to do. Moosey the Hopelessly Random Gardener is on the loose again.
Later...
OK, so I have been random - but I have been successfully random! New seeds, new cuttings, slices of water race edge, paths, archway roses (pruned - finally!)... It's debatable whether I'd take any notice of a rigid gardening strategy - but I certainly need a long term plan for my glass-house and what goes on in there. Watch this space.