New birthday benches...
Two New Garden Benches
Terribly important - I need to choose garden positions for my new birthday benches. I have two fat singles and a double to site - all with sturdy wooden slats and decorative wrought iron ends. Suddenly I have twice as many proper places (i.e. with armrests) to sit and admire the new spring growth. Eek! Shouldn't I be weeding?
Friday 4th September
It's late afternoon, and I did wander around the garden choosing different positions for the new seats. But rather than struggle to shift them myself I'm waiting for THE WEEKEND - when Non-Gardening Partner will be available. Instead I cleared the new garden by my newest stone wall. I pulled out heaps of weeds and used all the stones up. Then I had a small bonfire - just four wheelbarrow loads. Whoosh!
Tomorrow morning several of my latest online plant auctions close. I am bidding for 26 roses, 6 Phormiums, 9 Hebes and 2 Photinias - all of which need to be dug out of their various gardens. Eek! I have had some rather long experiences at digging out Phormiums... We'll see, we'll see...
More Daffodils
Saturday 5th September
Aargh! Non-Gardening Partner was to have such a grand day in the garden - expertly planned, of course, by me - but he has escaped and gone skiing. And to make matters worse, it's one of those frosty mornings (zero degrees Celsius at the moment) where I am doomed to ramble on in my gardening journal until it warms up... Aargh again!
To Auto-Bid or Not To Auto-Bid...
And then there's the worry of this morning's online plant auctions to dig up lots of other people's roses. To auto-bid or not to auto-bid, that is the question... What is another person's rose, name unknown, worth to me this weekend? Eek - it may even be one of those silly patio roses, or a common white Iceberg. Prudence, I feel, is required. And no more than five dollars per rose.
Green Goddess :- Species Cordylines go in the garden, while fancy hybrids like Green Goddess go in my patio pots.
Today in the garden, here is a list of 'shoulds'. I should finish clearing and burning the rubbish I pulled out of the Hump (where the new Cabbage tree grove is). I should collect up all my plastic pots and cart them off to the glass-house, where I should sow my spring seeds. I should get more stones for my new stone wall and I should do some more weeding. And, of course, I should stop peeping at my rose auctions and get off this computer. Done.
Later, Lunchtime...
Hee hee. I only won one of eight rose auctions. So with the money saved I've just bought (still online) four silver Astelias and four assorted shrubs (one looks like a Camellia). I took one look at their photograph - they were all growing out of holes in black weedmat - and just had to rescue them. Golly this is fun! And hey! I love silver Astelias, I know how much they cost in the nurseries, and how slowly they grow when vegetatively propagated. Ha!
Spring Garden Shrubs and Trees
Please do not think I have been peeping and bidding all morning - I have been seriously wheeling rubbish to the burning heap and burning it. I'm off outside now for a weeding session in the Laundry Garden. I need to finish pruning the Hydrangeas and tidy up the big Lavenders.
Much Later...
Hee hee hee hee hee. I've just got home with my tiny car stuffed full of the following - two huge clumps of hostas, five roses, four silver Astelias, a young Tree Peony (unknown colour), a Camellia, a Daphne, a variegated Fatsia Japonica, and an unknown shrub. Oh boy! All the roses are pruned and sitting in the bathtub behind the garage, while all other plants have their roots covered in bags. All at good prices, and all dug out vigorously by meeeeeeeeee for my birthday. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow!
White Pansy Flower
Sunday 6th September
Right. No Phormiums were won in the plant auction last night. Actually I'd miscounted, there were twelve - eek! Consequently my humble little bid was too humble and little. This could be a blessing in disguise. Phormiums can be devilishly difficult for women with weak upper-arm strength to dig up. Particularly if they (the women, that is) are trying not to alert Non-Gardening Partners (some of whom have decent male muscles) that they've purchased an excess of Phormiums in an online auction. You see, one needs to retain one's calm, measured, prudent gardening image.
So first thing today I'll send NGP off with the dog and quickly plant yesterday's booty. Just quietly - all the new roses and shrubs go into buckets of potting mix, and all the new Astelias go straight into the garden, by the new path into the Hump. This afternoon I have to collect (oops) three free Hebes and another large hosta clump. Well - it is spring, after all, and my birthday is two days away...
Late Afternoon...
Well, well, well. I took a friend and together we huffed and puffed and dug out the free Hebes - they were quite large. Now the Hebe-owner has a Camellia, a President Roosevelt rhododendron, some Agapanthus clumps, and a Forsythia for us when we return next weekend. She doesn't want any money - the plants are either coming to Mooseys or going to the tip. I'm blown away by this type of generosity to a stranger, so I'm going to get her a gardening voucher. The Hebes are already planted, also near the new path into the Hump. They look absolutely gorgeous.
Horse Manure :- At least the horse-poos comes in handy sized plastic bags - but sometimes I forget to get them out of the car...
Three Hebes in a car for half an hour produce quite an odd smell, which (my nose tells me) permeates the hair and clothes of the driver-gardener. And I also picked up bags of horse manure on the way home to add another interesting fragrance. I need to freshen up ASAP.
Monday 7th September
Zoom! I'm off with my friend on a birthday hike on Mount Somers, on the track up Woolshed Creek. It will be a big day...