Roses - please don't all bloom at once!
Cercis Forest Pansy in Blossom
Aargh! Blast! This week my Moosey garden experiences will be rather thin on the (unweeded) ground. There may even be no journal entries! I hope the garden will wait patiently for my return. Roses - please don't all start blooming at once!
Sunday 23rd October - Bad News for the Garden
Aargh! I have a serious paid-work commitment, which sees me stuck inside on the computer while the Moosey flowers burst into bloom without me! I've done no hands-on gardening for the last four days. I have spuds, lettuces and tomatoes waiting to be planted in the vege garden, and a host of things in the glass-house to see to. The weeds, naturally, think that my temporary absence is wonderful. I've asked the cherry trees blossoming madly in the pond paddock to hold on - just a few more days! And the rust pustules which I discovered on Dublin Bay - you may think I'm down, but I'm not out! I will return, stronger than ever, probably wielding a spray gun full of something nasty.
I wonder if the peonies are flowering yet? I've spied patches of rhododendron colour in the gardens over the water race. And poor Rusty the puppy! What a boring person I've been these last days. The morning walk is shorter, and there's no happy pottering in the Hazelnut Orchard. There is an upside - ha! The 'every cloud has a silver lining' sort of thing - remember those sore hands from too much weeding? They're not really sore any more!
I trust that the garden will be patient and go into pause mode until Moosey the Gardener is back in business.
Hostas in the Mulch
Wednesday 26th October - I am Back!
Right. Firstly I will plant my vege garden. Yesterday a box of goodies arrived from my forum friend Rebekah (thank you so much, Rebekah). And what goodies! Jersey Bennies (spuds), little seed packets of Rebekah's heirloom butternut pumpkins, and other seeds she's collected. I have added my shop-bought organic carrot packet to the pile. I already have robust seedling courgettes, lettuces and tomatoes in the glass-house. Am I ready for this? You bet! Hopefully this will be my first really successful vegetable garden.
Fruhlingsgold Rose
Secondly I will collect some early flowering roses for the house. The big Fruhlingsgold bush (or tree) rose is now completely covered. Mutabilis by the balcony is, too - both roses looking like swarms of floppy-winged butterflies have landed on them. Thirdly I will do the edges of the gardens by the water race. I can admire the rhododendrons in the Willow Tree Garden. Some are showing themselves in two minds - half the bush has flowers, the other half has built new branches of leaves. Cautionary word of gentle warning to self - they are starting to look rather large (remember these came to me as bargain bin nursery rejects). Hmm...
Small Red Rhododendron
Then there are the more personal things I will do. Puppy and I will go for a long walk. I will sit and drink sunny cups of tea with my cats - drinking, naturally, out of my Chelsea Flower Show Mug. After a long, tireless day in the garden I will go for a refreshing swim (covered pool, half an hour up and down quietly in the slow lane, being sensible stretching out my gardener's back). I will try and catch up answering my e-mail, and I will talk to my relatives - my gourmet cook is going to work in the Maldives for a year, taking the Moosey House Guest with her! Eek! A gardening tour of the Maldives? Not sure...
Brilliant! It's good to be back! One grinning medium-old lady gardener is reunited with the garden she loves. Swap that computer screen for the sunscreen! My fingernails are aching to get dirty again.
Lunchtime...
I have a vege garden again! To show I am taking this very seriously I have even ripped out all the self seeded aquilegias, one foxglove, one green ornamental grass, lots of little purple pansies and half the orange calendulas which had taken up winter quarters. My peas, lettuces, carrots, tomatoes and Jersey Bennie spuds are lovingly planted. After lunch I will do the courgettes and put my pumpkin seeds in. Ha! I also have spring onion seedlings. What else? Beans? More lettuces? Definitely more lettuces!
I am so pleased to be back twittering in my journal, too. I feel as if I could write for a week...
Friday 28th October
Money-work again yesterday, and this morning - that makes one and a half clean fingernails days. The hot, relentless nor-west wind has been noisily blowing. This afternoon puppy and I have been watering the garden - I move the hoses around and soak the house pots, while puppy tries to 'eat' the flow of water. Garden flowers (white irises, pansies, aquilegias) are on the move - and the pergola rose Crepuscule now has lots of pointy apricot buds. In the pond paddock the cherry blossom is starting to fall, like snow in summer.
My New Rose Avenue
Saturday 29th October
Ha! The weekend! I have big plans, to make up for my absences. Lawn edges need trimming, and the later rhododendrons over the water are blooming beautiful - I must take more photographs. Then I have some mail order plants to plant - some delightful new sage and cream Hostas, and a wine-leafed Ajuga. I need to water my sparkling new vege garden and put in my seedling lettuces and courgettes. There are twenty-six impressive plastic irrigation pieces on the kitchen table - they are for the archway roses in the Hazelnut Orchard.
And to accompany the first cup of tea there early morning cricket to watch! How delightful! Go New Zealand!
Much Later...
Aargh! We lost the cricket. But I won my battle with the lilac phlox, phase three, by the glass-house. And other very exciting things have happened in the garden. I have watered, weeded, and trimmed edges. I bought twelve (oops) assorted plants from the roadside trailer, and I have nearly planted them all! The new lavenders are filling in spaces in the Stables garden extension, and the purple cordylines are in pots. A Ceanothus and a red flax are still needing homes. Pity about the cricket.
There are swathes of roses starting to flower - Clair Matin, pretty little Phyllis Bide on the house arch, Moonlight scrambling up into the apple tree and the lovely lemon-yellow rugosa Agnes. In fact all the rugosas behind the glass-house are flowering. I love these roses! I think it is very close to iris time, too. I still haven't checked and photographed the rhododendrons. So many lovely things to see and do!