Don't be shy...
Hello, October. Welcome to my spring garden. You've arrived - that was quick! Come this way - don't be shy. My plants and I have been expecting you...
First of all, a comment concerning the absolute busyness which affects recently retired, energetic lady-gardeners. Yes, that busyness which helpful colleagues (who are still working) doubt the existence of. Well, I have decided that I have to start writing all my weekly appointments up on a calendar. So I have printed a personal calendar page for October, complete with pretty photograph of Beige-Puss and Fluff-Fluff when they were kittens.
Yellow Polyanthus
For the first time ever my life is visible, scribbly appointments in little black boxes on my office wall. Eek! October looks quite full! No wonder I sometimes wonder why I can never finish anything in the garden! Perhaps the next step is to retire from retirement, so to speak...
Today I need to get into the garden before the threatened rain arrives. Aargh! I have only just remembered the weather forecast. Bye!
Morning Tea, Drizzling...
I seem to be feeling listless. Ha! That's probably because I have no list written down. The remedy is obvious.
My First October List
- Lay this week's newspaper in Welcome Garden.
- Finish spreading compost.
- Plant lavenders.
- Pot up scabious pieces.
Except this list is a cheat - I have already done item number one, hee hee! So I am guaranteed a 25% successful completion rate.
Right. I have just finished peeping at daughter's photographs of trekking in India - very scary stuff. She tries to distract me (from mother-worry) by including pictures of mountain delphiniums and white daisies. I am not fooled! The landscapes have a big, frightening, cold emptiness. Aargh! There are many challenges in life, and trekking in India is one I will never, ever do! A more immediate challenge is to stop twittering on about random things and to return at once to the garden! Drizzle - schmizzle! Get away! C'mon, Moose (that's my pet name for my pet name, if you know what I mean). Cut loose!
Brewster the Rooster
Lunchtime...
I am afraid it's going to be one of those well-chronicled days. A keen and nervous new chook mother, I have just let my hens and rooster out. My plan was for them to follow me, their mother, the giver of grain, greens and pellets, through a little gap in the fence to the Hazelnut Orchard. Their plan was to scratch in the Hen-House Gardens - the new compost went down a treat.
Stachys - Spring Growth
Don't Eat the Stachys!
So I had to lure them back into their run with (I'm ashamed to say it) white bread slices. Seeing my beautiful Brewster the rooster pecking at Euphorbia flowers, the tips of Hebe leaves, and my lovely edging perennial Stachys was just too much for me.
And, talking of chronicling, I now have 50% completion of the list items. Hee hee - again technically I cheated, conning non-gardening partner to empty the compost for me. Naturally I spread the piles out!
I've worked my way along the edge borders of Duck Lawn, pretending that I'm weeding out all the sorrel. I can dream, can't I! I think it's time for a quick nursery visit to scoop up a few more lavenders to plant, before I run out of Sunday puff. They are very cheap, and I am very greedy. But I have to plant the existing ones (a pink flowering variety) first...
Monday 2nd October
I think I did OK yesterday. But if only I paid attention to small details, and kept everything tidier! A tour of my garden goes like this - three steps forward, bend and pick up stray plastic pot, four more steps, bend and destroy obvious large weed, three more steps, find small stack of abandoned firewood squashing dwarf agapanthus... This morning after swimming I could do a tidying circuit with the wheelbarrow.
Beautiful Samoa :- Palm trees on tropical beaches, wonderful people, and warm sea to swim in...
I remember coming home from my holiday in Samoa all fired up about garden tidiness - sweeping the paths and patios daily, raking leaves from the lawns daily, that sort of thing. Mind you, the place where we stayed had four gardeners the size of rugby players. Hmm...
Tuesday 3rd October
Oh dear. Oops. I stayed away from the garden yesterday. And now today it's drizzling, to make me feel twice as guilty. So after I've fiddled around a bit I'm off to the nursery to buy potting mix. And maybe, just maybe, I could visit the rose nursery and buy a few new roses. All the newly cleared space in the garden might like to be rose-filled. I love roses.
Room For Roses? The 2006 Wattle Woods
And I love this part of spring, when all things pink start peeping out at me from the greenery. This morning I checked from the upstairs window - I can see two fresh pinky-red maples, the weeping Crab-Apple with cherry-pink flowers, and the big pink rhododendron, always so generous with its blooms (obviously a very thoughtful gardener planted it in the best of places). And another thanks to my Camellia 'Gay Baby' which has the look and form of a modest climbing pink rose.
- 'Garden big, think small.'
- -Moosey Words of Wisdom.
Can I record an important thought? These pink things are a) happier and b) more visible because I've cleared away excess scruffy stuff and pruned ridiculously overgrown trees. Yes, finally I am learning from my friend Liza, trying to nurture each individual plant - looking to the little things.