An overabundance...
Aquilegia in Red Flax
There's an overabundance of beautiful things everywhere in the garden, and so few human eyes, noses, and ears to enjoy them. Would busloads of old-lady garden tour visitors be the answer? Hmm... What then about the overabundance of weeds?
Thursday 30th October
Today I must make up for doing absolutely nothing yesterday - except taking photographs. And for deciding that if there had to one 'most beautiful ever' garden day, visually, then yesterday was it. Can a garden be too beautiful?
Back Down to Earth
Hmm.... Some compost spreading, weeding, fern trimming, shrub planting, and path pruning should knock all that dreamy stuff back into place. The Head Gardener needs to come back down to earth. Today she need to be a practical working gardener.
Actually, I will make a specific list to organise those tasks, while drinking my coffee. Floating around thinking beautiful thoughts is all very well...
Old Fashioned Aquilegia
- Compost spreading.
- It's going onto the Hen House Gardens. Plant flowering annuals in gaps at same time.
- Shrubbery Weeding
- Make the courtyard a pleasant, ambient, weed free place to have lunch.
- Fern Trimming
- Fern clumps in the water race opposite the Oak Tree Seat need tidying. You said you'd do this yesterday! Take a clutch of kitchen steak knives...
- Shrub Planting.
- Photinias and Phebalium into the Wilderness. Remember you are creating a route which is not a proper path...
- Path Pruning
- The Wattle Woods path needs a major change of direction. Go and look, and then think, think, think...
There will be some self-rewards for good behaviour. Firstly, I am allowed to buy some Lavenders for the Hen House Gardens. Then there's the cricket to watch at 5pm - if I've been really good. And Non-Gardening Partner has promised to mow the lawns early this evening.
Path Into the Shrubbery
Much Later...
I worked for seven hours. The day felt sort of timeless... I bought a Cotinus, another Green Goddess Cordyline, a deep red upright flax, two dark pink flowering Cistus shrubs, and ten Lavenders. Everything is planted. The Wilderness now has Photinias, Weigelas, and a large yellow-leafed Pseudopanax (which has finally escaped into the soil, having been in stuck a pot for the last three years). I did everything on my list except the fern trimming. And I burnt two barrowfuls of gum tree rubbish collected from the back of the Pond.
Old Iron, Cordyline and Flax
I am a gardening legend - but I forgot how long it takes to plant shrubs properly. I got my Lavenders (Hidcote and Pacific Blue) from the oddest nursery down the road. The layout is a mess, lots of planter bags are weedy, but they're cheap. The nursery saleswoman makes no apology for the wretched visual state of things, either.
Friday 31st October
I am back from swimming, feeling sluggish. Not that my garden is at all sluggish... but there are aphid colonies on my roses, too many to squash with finger and thumb, and a few summer flies are buzzing through the house. Anyway, today, as soon as I've bounced back into life (hello hot coffee), I'll wander outside to complete yesterday's list. The missing Wattle Woods path is high priority.
Spot the Wattle Woods Path
Much Later...
My goodness. A chance cheeky comment to a plant collector friend - did he have any old reject plants he wanted to donate to the Moosey Garden? Thirteen reject (to my amateur eyes they are beautifully coloured) seed-raised pinky-orange deciduous Azaleas later...
Azalea :- I've been trying to build up my collection of deciduous Azaleas - but in the nurseries they're usually so pricy.
I planted them all together in a loose little semi-circle at the very beginning of the driveway, where once a large Cotoneaster grew. The planting took me ages, and they look wonderful. I chopped out some Pittosporums to make room, and cleared up a huge pile of firewood.
I have now seen two places in my garden which would be perfect for Cotinus - smoke bushes. And two which would be wonderful for large red Maples. I have also found a cluster of $12 Cotinus and $20 Maples at the messy local nursery. Connections, connections... Watering, watering... It's late in the pre-summer season to be planting new 'trees'.
Before I forget - Goodbyeeeeeeeeee to October. This year you didn't seem to hang around for very long. Too many things to do, places to be I guess...