Inspired by Rosemary Verey...
My efforts to stay inspired by Rosemary Verey continue - I'm imagining I'm welcoming garden visitors into an orderly, cared-for garden. And I have some great news regarding the Moosey garden photographs...
From Little Seedlings Mighty Gunnera Do Grow
Sunday 18th March
I've been creating a good first impression by raking the driveway and pulling up colonies of weeds. A quick stop for morning coffee, then I'll finish this task - which could easily be done, say, twice a week, and requires no special mental energy - so why isn't it? Hmm...
I've also dug up another two random clumps of species daylilies. But, just in case my purposeful mood starts to drift, I'll make a list for the afternoon's work.
List
- Finish raking driveway.
- Finish clearing the back of the Wattle Woods.
Pretty minimal list! I will pile up all burnable rubbish on fence-lines.
Monday 19th March
First of all, success on the web-master front - finally, after a little pressure, I can show you proper garden photographs. I'd like to thank the Moosey cat food image for filling in.
Cats on the Back Lawn
There's definitely an autumn feeling creeping into the garden - the mornings are cooler, the shadows are longer, and all my asters are flowering. I have tall pale blue, tall cerise, little white and little Wedgwood blue ones. That might sound impressive, but the aster flowers get lost in the green, messy fog which is my garden.
The sedums, too, are flowering - but some clumps aren't in the best of health (mildew). Yet annuals like my sweet peas and cosmos just keep on and on - and I've hardly picked or dead-headed them. What generous plants they are.
Cosmos
Yesterday I had a gardening list with two items, and sadly didn't get to start the second - the serious clearing of the back of the Wattle Woods. It was the weather (thunder and large raindrops) that drove me inside. The back of the Wattle Woods is in a very big mess, so I can expect lots of slashing, digging, and slicing. My little wriggling stream is non-functioning, and damage from last winter's snow storm hasn't quite been cleared up. Add in the nine months since my last weeding session, fifteen tall gum trees, recent wind, hebes struggling to find the sun, and not enough rain - aargh!
Right. I am going outside to sort out those Wattle Woods. At the end of today I will be proud to conduct guided tours - the paths will be raked, the gardens thoroughly weeded, the hebes trimmed - there will even be running water and a little seat. I will do it.
Early Afternoon...
Well, that was easy! I've cleaned most of it up, and even got the little wriggling stream running again. Just one little pond is filling, lined with stones. This is a delightful area when tidy - please let me be organised enough to keep it so! It's strictly foliage, uncomplicated, lots of spiky plants and grasses - very green and very pleasant. No roses!
Westerland Roses
Tuesday 20th March
This is ridiculous. I want to keep my wriggling stream going - just a modest trickle of flowing water, nothing too major. The resident engineer, he who ignores my pleas for twice weekly lawn-mowing and second pond constructions, is trying to - ahem - wriggle out of another Moosey garden idea. Could he possibly make a little paddle-wheel which could possibly start a pump to get the water flowing? He is an engineer - this is the sort of thing that engineers enjoy thinking about? Right? Hmm...
Dandelion Weed :- Gardeners are always weeding!
I have been instructed to Google search for 'floating paddle-wheel pump'. Honestly! I should be garden searching - for dock weeds, and dandelion weeds, and the like. And pondering colour wheels, like my recently acquired mentor, Rosemary Verey.
Right. The mood is fierce - I've run out of tea (both loose and bags). And how much more raking of gum tree leaves can one gardener do? This is the same gardener who bicycled like a madwoman half way into choir last night? Leg and arm muscles are getting a great work-out this week. I'm determined to follow through this wriggling stream idea. Running water is beautiful in a garden. And it's much less of a commitment than excavating and filling a second pond.
Gunnera, Gunnera - Watch How You Grow!
One tiny comment, something tiny that I noticed late yesterday. Please don't let this be my biggest gardening mistake ever. I keep talking about the cute little Gunnera seedlings which appear on the banks of my water race, having floated in from faraway upstream. Well, I've just counted a little colony of them wedged securely underneath the Willow tree stump by the water's edge. Forty three. Oops. Three perennial questions keep popping up.
- Can one have too many roses?
- Can one have too many cats?
- Can one have too many cute little Gunnera seedlings?
Current count - estimated two hundred and eighty roses, six cats, and at least forty three cute little Gunnera seedlings...