Silly, skittish spring!
I'd like to officially welcome September and Spring (I refuse to wait for the equinox). Silly, skittish spring - warmer one day, colder the next... Splendid, free-spirited spring - showing off your treasures big and small.
Sunday 31st August
Today's weather has been oh so spring-like. Now - just a few quick spring rules...
- 1. No snow.
- 2. No big wet storms.
- 3. No hail.
- 4. No big frosts - minus three (Celsius) is a good limit.
Just keep it simple, and we'll have a grand garden month together! Be especially nice, weatherwise, for New Zealand Fathers' Day and for the Moosey Birthday.
Too Much to Say?
Thoughts on Travel Writers
I've been thinking all day - as well as gardening, that is. About travel books, and about the possibility of a local Garden Club coming to visit the Moosey garden. Small things first - writers who go on silly journeys for TV programmes. Their plans sound amazingly sound - for example, walking in a straight line all the way from Edinburgh to London. But someone else organises all the interesting locals that they meet, and their journey is never continuous. I just feel that the whole thing is a bit of a sham. Unless raising funds for a charity is involved...
I pondered long about this as I shifted in plants to my newly cleared driveway garden. Around the bend there's a row of fountain grasses, and some spare (that is misplaced) rhododendrons have been moved in behind. Further around I've planted four Choisya ternata shrublets. If these be boring, then that's too bad - I like them. For me they're tough and clean, they survive being dumped on by snow and dried out by summer wind, and they don't mind a hard-prune (or a no-prune) regime. And several of the designer gardens in my Private Gardens of Paris library book have hedges of them. Ha!
Garden Club :- When I allow myself time off from the garden to go on a Garden Club Trip I really enjoy myself!
After lunch I though about the Garden Club visit (which I'm feeling very half-hearted about), and all the miscellaneous (and shameful) messy details that would need attending to in my garden. The answer might be to spend a whole day wandering around all the paths and lawns, along the edges of all the garden borders, checking. If something jumps out at me (a pot needing to be picked up, a seedling Pittosporum chopped out, something trimmed or shifted) then I stop right there and do it. Instant action.
Networking?
Trouble is, I can imagine a network of tasks with arrows leading to other tasks, and yet more arrows... If, for example, I sorted out the shameful messes into categories, then I might get further. Thus all unwanted Pittosporum seedlings in the whole garden would be chopped out or sawn down at the same time. Which reminds me - I have temporarily 'lost' my yellow saw.
Pink Hellebore
Whatever I decide to do I have made one decision about the visit. 'They' cannot come until my waterwheel is going again and my little wriggling stream has water gurgling down it. A functional waterwheel will create the best impression - my black-spotted roses, and weeds, and overcrowded shrubberies, and messy flaxes will pale into insignificance.
Stumpy :- Stumpy the cat is about seventeen years old, a grey tabby with a rather short tail and a loud moaning miaow.
On an animal note, I am taking Stumpy the old grey cat to the vet this week. Her chronic stiffness could do with some relief, and she's just not in very good condition. I'm trying to sneaky-feed her up, but young Percy and Tiger the Tubby have great long-distance noses for fresh meat. We are vet-booked for Tuesday morning.
Monday 1st September
I love September. It just feels different. It's the beginning of the last third of the year (bit of maths there) and under southern hemisphere skies this means summer's on the way. Already this morning I've been to check the new driveway plantings with Rusty the dog. Non-Gardening Partner will be pleased, I think - or will he just see all the work he needs to do? Ha! A little light sawing shouldn't worry a hard-working and well-organised NGP.
Good Dog
+5Rusty the good dog is being very perceptive. He knows deep in his doggy-depths that his 'bestest' friend (NGP) is away. He hasn't once gone searching, and I haven't seen him standing forlornly besides NGP's bicycle... Rusty has immediately settled into being a one-parent dog. Whatever he's missing isn't affecting his temperament - he's happy and busy in the garden, out cycling or walking. A pragmatic dog - he is inspiring me...
Rusty the Relaxing Collie Dog
Right. Off to the gym, then there's a new local nursery which opened yesterday. Another local friend has a Lavender farm, and I've promised to visit her - I'd like to see how she grows Lavender successfully here. It's promised to be seventeen springy degrees (Celsius) today. Yippee for September.
Much, Much Later...
I have done lots and lots of annoying hand-weeding in the gardens behind the house - lots of clasping and grabbing and twisting, and my hands are aching. But it's been a brilliant spring day and I am much pleased with myself. I'm looking at little details, and have even cleaned up the tables behind the glass-house.
Pink and Green Coprosma Leaves
I have three shiny brick-red-leafed Coprosmas to plant, and two Philadelphus shrubs (two dollars each, and there are three more in the bargain bin). Also I saw some sale-price standards of a plant called 'The Bride', and I thought two of them would look beautiful in pots either side of my glass-house door. Again, little details for the eye to catch and enjoy.