I love my garden in early autumn...
The early autumn days continue, bringing a peaceful ambience to the Moosey gardens. Even my digging and burning sessions seem to have become more relaxed. I love my garden in early autumn.
Wednesday 6th April
I am busy expanding the gardens over the water race - obviously (and oddly, since I went so hard at it) my Birthday Garden digging has inspired me. Today I started on the back of the Willow Tree Garden - I intend to claim quite a large piece of grass. The extension backs onto my new rhododendron garden which was successfully planted a couple of years ago - naturally there will be plenty of room for more when I am finished!
Green Lawns and Autumn Asters
Early autumn is a lovely time of year. I remember last year having the longest clearing and burning sessions imaginable. This year things are in better shape. I am going to go mulch-mad this month, too - the gardens are so much easier to work if properly mulched!
Little Details
The most enjoyable things are the little details - like the lawns returning to green-ness, and the wind stopping blowing. It's a calm, thoughtful time of the year - and also a time to give thanks to all my plants for behaving and growing so well. Talking about plants behaving - this is the month when the naughty Golden Hop in Middle Garden comes to my attention. Hmm... Will I be strong, mentally and physically, this year (finally!) and remove it? Will I ever be able to remove it? Probably not - the Golden Hop, like the head-gardener, is destined to be a survivor.
Thursday 7th April
Is gardening that much of an illusion - a confidence trick? The lawns turn green, the wind stops, and all is suddenly rosy? Well, perhaps not strictly rosy, but you know what I mean - imagine gardening where the lawns were always green and the wind didn't huff and puff at all - where is this place?
Rose Golden Tribute
Today I want to finish the Willow Tree Garden extension. Blast enjoying the gardening journey - I have plans for the destination! I can see new rhododendrons, surrounded by pleasant amounts of space. Funny - I can't see the sorrel weeds which creep in to annoy the existing garden. None so blind etc. etc...
The Music of Birdsong and Water...
The bellbirds do quite a lot of chiming when I work in this area - they seem to be based in the Australian fence-line gums (odd for New Zealand native birds). So this new digging session will certainly have ambient noise - quiet gurgling water, and birdsong. Ha! I could record it and have these sounds playing in this very page of my journal!
Garden Guitar :- The Moosey Garden has its very own resident guitarist - AKA Younger Son.
Aargh! Best not to give anyone land-locked in the rooftops of London any ideas about music on this website! Back to the Moosey garden in clean, green, spacious, sunny New Zealand (hee hee).
I could go budget and spread out the existing Willow Tree rhododendrons. And I still have rusty coloured tussock grasses from the Easter sale to plant. Lots and lots of new ideas - imagine if they ever dried up! What would I do?
Friday 8th April
I have worked in my garden all day. The back of the Willow tree Garden now has a much larger, wiggly curve, and I've shifted in one rhododendron, two tussocks and a variegated Lemonwood Pittosporum. The garden boundary is a much better shape - and I have created a natural place for one specimen tree in the grass. I've been digging through some of the original tree roots and stumps, all quite rotten now, and some alarming clumps of large brown fungus. There's not much else I can say - today has been a good digging day.
Autumn Sedum Flowers
The gardens by the house are a mess, though. My pots of succulents need a clean-up, as does the decking (slime and gum tree leaves). The rose Mutabilis by the house has (conveniently) fallen over.
Mutabilis :- This is the oldest 'old rose' that I grow in my garden.
What a beautiful old rose this is! I'm going to leave it trailing the ground, as the house walls are soon to be painted. Its flowers are quite luminous - many of my roses bloom brighter in autumn, and of course the light is softer.
I've just taken some photographs of the fungus, with puppy staring up at me, goggle-eyed. Dear Rusty the puppy - he deserves to be in the picture, since he has been such excellent dog-company today (oops - he just ate a little of my mulch).