A real summer gardener?
Right. Today I am going to be a real summer gardener for the - third day this summer? Wow! I am going to make a sensible list, after some equally sensible comments regarding summer colour.
Sunday 7th January
Hmm... When the roses are in-between their flushes there isn't enough colour in the gaps. So I need to research some more mid-summer perennials and shrubs which will be flowery and colourful right now - something to take the visual place of the irises, those strong givers of colour in early summer.
Summer Flowers
Perhaps I could look at stronger colours, too - some deeper reds and oranges. My daylilies are usually good value, but this year they don't seem very flowery. Ha! Not enough summer sun!
So here's my list.
- Pot up apricot irises.
- These have been sulking in the middle of Middle garden, and this year didn't flower at all.
- Plant remaining pottles of lettuces in vegetable garden.
- Oops.
- Try taking heaps of cuttings.
- I need more stocks of pelargoniums and daisies - after all, this is their flowering time.
- Fix up Dog-Path Garden.
- Both the real and the virtual. Take photographs, after organising lawn mowing.
Fluff-Fluff on the Path
And, talking of photographs, I must stop taking pictures of B-Puss lolling on the path, B-Puss staring out from behind the catmint, B-Puss washing his legs, B-Puss hiding underneath a flax...
Go Fluff-Fluff
I suspect there is cat-favouritism going on here. I have ten pictures of B-Puss for every one of Fluff-Fluff. Mugsy doesn't feature.
Mind you, I tend to take photographs of cats who accompany me while gardening. Fair enough. And I've temporarily stopped photographing Rusty the dog because he always has that same goofy look, and there have been technical complaints that his nose is over-exposed...
I should (after the lawns and edges are done) take a whole stack of official photographs of the other Moosey cats, and all the garden areas, since I am cleaning up the Moosey Garden Tour pages.
My favourite roses won't be noticeable, but those lawns should look beautifully green and freshly mown!
Apology to Sally Holmes
Oops. Sorry, Sally Holmes roses, I wasn't talking about you! You are blooming magnificent, filling the Island Border with your wonderful rose flowers! Trust me, you are always extremely noticeable - particularly now that that greedy Choisya Ternata has been pruned smaller. And you are definitely one of my favourite roses.
Layers of Green
Oops. It's five hours later, and I had to ignore my list. But I have the perfect excuse. The water race was down to a trickle, so I spent ages and ages weeding along the edge - without getting soaked for once. The Willow Tree Garden is well cleared, so perhaps that garden area should be my new Tour clean-up project! The branches which are growing out of the Willow stump are far too spready, though. Some serious tree maintenance - that means chain-sawing - is needed.
Blue Garden Seats
Great news regarding the new garden seats - they are now beautifully blue, and are awaiting their second coat of paint. The turquoise colour is amazing. I think I am going to base them in the small oval lawn by the willow, near the water, facing the Birthday Rose Garden. I have three seats, so there is space for two friends at once!
Unknown Treelet
I've just been outside to continue my progress along the water - but the race has been 'turned on' again, and lots of cold water is gurgling and rushing past. Oh well, I've done so much gardening today that I am allowed to relax. Jerome the Grey cat is smooching me as I write - blame all spelling mistakes on her.
Can't have a good list going to waste, though. I will recycle it for tomorrow.
Monday 8th January
I feel rather sheepish saying this, but today has been too hot to garden much. So I've still got my list of things to do. I weeded for about an hour and moved my hoses around by the house.
.
Flaxes Growing Well
Tuesday 9th January
Ha! I've planted the apricot irises in the Hen House Garden, which is freshly weeded. It was going to get the hugest surface make-over - all random seedling plants were to be ripped up or potted. However, a restrained, leisurely garden pace has prevailed. Now I am about to tidy up the Hen-House Tour - this is a real hoot, doing real and virtual clean-ups at the same time.
Feeding the Neighbourhood
I have been feeding my hens well each day, cooking up potato and kumara peelings, always giving them greens, even buying them silver beet from the fruit-and-vegetable market. My vegetable garden has rows of lettuces and spinach planted just for them. Today I was unimpressed to see a cute, fat little brown rabbit happily sitting in the chicken run munching on layer pellets, surrounded by dust-bathing chooks. Aargh! So not only am I feeding the neighbourhood sparrows, starlings, blackbirds, pigeons, and so on, but also I am helping the rabbit population get strong and healthy. Humph.
My Mid-Summer House Lawn
Going apres gardening to watch the cricket has proved a little premature - it's raining so the game hasn't started, and I'm far too clean and lazy to return to the garden. But this doesn't give me the excuse to rabbit on (aargh!) abut nothing in my journal.
Thursday 11th January
It's been raining since I last said it was raining. What a weird January summer holiday! I gaze a lot into my beautifully green and moist garden, I walk over to the Hen-House twice a day with my umbrella, accompanied by two squeaking gardening cats (B-Puss and Fluff-Fluff), to throw the hens their scraps, greens, and grain. I notice that my vegetable garden, for once, is being properly watered (by nature, that is). But - here's the ultimate test - I have extremely clean fingernails. Hmm...
Tidy Up the Island Bed...
There's really no point writing a wet-gardening list. I am still in the mood for making real and virtual connections, so one of my next jobs is to tidy up both versions of the Island Bed.
Red Penstemon :- I must, must, must create lots of red penstemon plants for next summer. I love them. I miss them. They are such great fillers in the garden.
I notice in the Moosey Web-Tour that I had some beautiful lipstick red penstemons growing here. I must try and find them - rescue might be a better word - in the weedy undergrowth. OK. I have a Christmas present nursery voucher which I still haven't spent. I am going swimming. Then, just maybe, I will be able to do some dry, happy garden pottering. Hope so.
Later, Early Afternoon...
Aargh! Suddenly I am full of energy, and I can think of at least five things I feel like doing. Like continuing the web-site tidy up, or laying more newspaper mulch in the Welcome Garden, or cleaning the bathroom (sorry about this)... What to do first? Gardening - come on gardening cats, out we go.