Rejected hostas!
I have ground to dig, trees and roses to plant, and a carful of rejected hostas from a gardening friend. The new birthday garden needs to be finished (and photographed) by Easter!
Beautiful Hostas
Monday 21st March
I've been at work all day earning money - a good thing for my sorry finances. My visa card is now banned from rose sales and nursery plant sales. The only thing I am allowed to spend money on is pea-straw for mulch. Overspending may be fun at the time, but the long-term effects are quite worrying - for example, at 3 am in the middle of the night, wondering what I could possibly sell that isn't a new rose or a new tree.
Free Hostas
Brilliant timing - one of my friends is removing a chunk of her garden and returning it to lawn. From her I have heaps of hostas, and there will be more for me tomorrow, plus some roses and some canna lilies. Consistency and patience are now required - I must work in the birthday garden every day. No more twittering in this journal - I am off now to dig.
The Water Tank - Original Site of the Birthday Garden
Right - I'm back. I have been digging and clearing for one and a half hours (it's gone quite dark outside). My slow progress is not terribly noticeable, but the garden is one and a half hours closer to being finished. I shifted a Jester flax (I love these, and wonder how big they will eventually get), and dug a triangle shape from the water race to the first rose position. I've also shifted some dwarf daylilies (which I found hidden under a lavender bush in the Stables Garden) and some daffodil bulbs (which were directly underneath the Jester flax - very odd!).
Yellow Daylilies :- My favourite daylilies are the sunny yellow ones.
Even if it is boring I am going to record all the planting details. This is a huge new garden, and there will be a lot of shiftees from other garden areas (for example, I must remember the Stella D'Oro daylily clump which is presently sulking in the dust by the laundry).
I'm extremely glad that I moved the Birthday Garden from its original site by the water tank. The new position is so much more suitable. Oops - I very nearly made a big mistake!
Tuesday 22nd March
I am home from work for a long lunch. I have an hour and a half spare - I could either watch the cricket (ouch!) or dig for an hour. The latter, I think - then perhaps I can have two digging sessions today, and the Birthday Garden can make twice as much progress as it would have if I'd just watched the cricket - depending on one's definition of progress. I'm off outside with the latest cricket radio - a bright red mini-radio which crackles and gurgles (like Hamlet the silly hen in the hedge). Cat-or-kitten-company and puppy-company (smelly beef bone included) would be nice.
The Kittens Playing
Tea Time...
I have done two sessions of digging! One Olive tree and two roses are firmly planted, plus the lovely purple leafed Ligularia. If I can just keep this up - no panic necessary, no emotion needed, just good solid head-down digging - the new Birthday Garden will be ready in no time! I can do this!
Wednesday 23rd March
Right! It's lunchtime, and I am home from work (with heaps more hostas!) - it's time to do my first digging session of the day. I will have this Birthday Garden finished in no time. Then all I will need is mulch. Back soon. Building new gardens is a breeze!
Thursday 24th March
I have had to spend (again) a lot of potential gardening daytime at my work. It's been the same routine all week - I work, I get tired, I zoom home, I change into my gardening clothes, then I zoom outside to dig more garden, followed by the kittens and the puppy. I only last about an hour and a half! Take today - another Olive tree is planted, and three more roses - see, I am making progress! I am also keeping a mental note of plants in squashed circumstances in other garden areas which could be moved into the Birthday Garden - several roses in the driveway border might enjoy a change of scenery.
Variegated Berberis
Award Winning Gardens Designed by Moosey
The new Moosey-designed gardens at my work are almost planted. They look great. I've used New Zealand natives, nothing that will block the drains or need any pruning, and quite a lot of small coloured weeping hybrid flaxes. It's quite fun, laying out planter bags, pointing at this and that, and then leaving all the actual garden work to someone else! Perhaps I could borrow work's handyman-turned-gardener for the long weekend in the Moosey garden...
Canna Tropicanna in Flower
Tomorrow I am going to the big local nursery Easter sale - I had a peep today at the bargain bin table (closed to the public until 8 am tomorrow morning). There are some lovely Lemonwood Pittosporums, Berberis shrubs, and lots of tussocks. Hmm... I think I should make an early morning visit with the trailer. Then I should really try hard to dig and plant all day.