Sitting, reading, eating...
Is it nearly Christmas? It jolly well is! I've started dead-heading the roses, and seem to spent all my days sitting somewhere shady reading and eating. I do get up from time to time to shift the hoses. Hmm...
Multicoloured Masquerade Roses
Thursday 4th December
Oh dear. I've started the gardening month of December in a book-reading summer holiday mood. And I've spent hours at the computer in the Moosey office building my Christmas present calendars. I haven't done much real gardening.
But I've had a very good reason - the last three days have been horribly windy. Hot dry norwesters have been roaring over the trees and swirling around the garden. It's a noisy and unpleasant wind - and usually causes a general decline in human behaviour. Incidents of garden rage? Maybe not, but certainly it's nicer inside listening to cool clear Bach violin sonatas.
The House Patio
Today looks the same - but I'm going to compromise. I'll take Rusty the dog for a walk (cycling is out) and then I'll tidy the new Driveway Garden. The big Locust tree needs pruning, the prunus suckers need chopping, the edges of the border need digging, and weeds (very disappointing) need to be removed from the top of the mulch.
Parsley and Basil:- I buy potting mix by the bag because it's easy for me to handle and cart around in my wheelbarrow.
And I've got my potting mix, so I can do my herbs - naturally I'm talking here about the parsley and basil - to be planted in pots for the patio.
Right. A semi-moochy day sounds good. It's too windy!
Late Afternoon...
Well, I tried - honestly I did! Disheartened by all the weeds popping up from my rotten pea-straw mulch, deafened by the roaring wind in the gum trees high overhead, baked and roasted by the hot sun - I've retreated inside, after just two wheelbarrowfuls of trimmings. Those salvias are really annoying to cut back - hurray for the kitchen scissors. Remind me again - why do I grow them? Because they're blue? Weedy echiums are blue!
Cornelia Roses
The sun has disappeared, so perhaps some rosy summer of 2008 photographs would be nice too. I've has another of those horrible moments looking back at older pictures. Middle Garden looked better in 2002 than it does today - so unfair. It could just be a photographic illusion? Humph...
Friday 5th December - A Gardening Disgrace!
And what a gardening disgrace! Have almost caused the demise of the basil - phew! Watered it just in time, and its pot is ready. But there's worse - two Silver Dollar rhododendrons by the pond (planted there as a result of a silly reflection idea I had) probably haven't made it. I've squashed their sadly wilting bodies into buckets of water, and now I can only wait. And hope. And learn.
- 'Brainy gardeners are supposed to learn from their mistakes, not remake them.'
- -Moosey Words of Wisdom.
My garden is by nature dry. Unless rhododendrons are sited carefully, close by the irrigation, they will not survive the summer, though they may look absolutely beautiful in spring. Brainy gardeners are supposed to learn from their mistakes, not remake them. Brainy? Hmm... I guess you don't play Bach fugues and read Topology books unless you're a bit brainy - pity it doesn't translate into the garden.