Please slow down!
Pretty Daffodils
Eek! September is racing past - please slow down! I love, love, love every minute of every gardening day, especially at this springy time of the gardening year. I'm sure I've said that already...
Tuesday 22nd September
Aargh! More perils of the online plant auction - I am now the proud owner of ten Lavender plants. I seem to remember not liking Lavender at all during mid-winter. Well - at least these have been dug out of the owner's garden for me. It's another beautiful spring morning. What shall I do first today? I'll wander around with a cup of hot coffee and ask Rusty the dog. He holds a pretty good gardening conversation.
Later...
Blast. Rusty suggested some weeding. So that's what I've done - all along the back lawn gardens, and into the Dog Kennel Garden and Rockery, where I've seriously pruned some Hebes. Two beautiful Camellias are now visibly flowering in the very back of this garden. And my two dwarf conifers in the front are looking very shapely. Not a so-called 'dwarf' Escallonia, though, which is smothering the rocks. It's now trimmed.
Digging Out Agapanthus
Tomorrow I'm digging out a friend's Agapanthus from her hillside garden. I will be well prepared, taking two shovels, an axe, a bow saw, and some kitchen steak knives (oops). Hopefully the Agapanthus root systems are not holding up the hillside...
Pink Camellia
A note for the Moosey Colour Records - two of my most beautiful crab-apple trees are now in cherry-pink blossom. And the big pink rhododendron which I pass on the path through to the Hazelnut Orchard is starting to flower. The dark pink Camellia by the house is tremendously beautiful. Yippee!
Thursday 24th September
Aargh! As a result of yesterday's frenetic activities, I have - maybe one hundred? - anyway, a mighty huge load of plain blue Agapanthus plants, with jolly decent roots. It took me three hours to dig, axe, and saw them out. And thirty three Lavender plants (ten are English). I filled my little car completely, twice, all seats as well as the back bit. Afterwards I responsibly vacuumed out bucketloads of sand, dirt, and gardening debris (I had to drive a well-dressed friend to choir practice).
Agapanthus! Aargh!
So today - rather obviously - I should be planting these new acquisitions, creating instant foliage delights in my spring garden. A list of priority locations now follows...
Agapanthus Planting
- In Henworld
- Replacing disgracefully dead-looking brown tussocks.
- Along the lawn-edge of the Hump
- To look sculptural - and survive - underneath the gum trees.
- In the Welcome Garden
- This is for the left-overs. It's quite shady, so flowering will be a bonus.
Now to dispose of the Lavenders. How's this for a random idea - English ones along one edge of the vege garden? Hmm... All other bulky ones (Stoechas?) to be squashed into the sunny side of the Hen House Gardens. In which case (I can't believe I'm saying this) I'll need to zoom back to the charity shop and buy some more of the English. More Lavenders? Hopeless!
Pretty Pink Camellia
Another Gnome!
In my online auction adventures I'm bidding for another concrete garden gnome. He's supposed to be fishing, but I'm suspicious - he looks like the sort of chap who would pee in the pond when the gardener's back was turned. That certainly won't do!
Later, Mid-Afternoon...
I'm sorry. But it's cold and drizzly, and I'm really tired. All I've done is to plant the vege garden lavenders, plus some vege garden weeding. Now I've retired for the day to warm up, get clean, and loll on the TV couch.
More Spring Things
More Camellias are out - I have a late, second wave of flowering, mainly from shrubs which live in colder places in the garden. The patio Wisteria is just starting. More blossom trees are flowering - Smoocher the cat's memorial Mt Fuji flowering cherry, the Ornamental Pear by the raspberries, and the cherry-pink Crab-Apples. Honesty has suddenly grown tall and is flowering. And I can see several patches of red tulips.
Friday 25th September
It's still raining, which is brilliant for the garden. But how I wish, wish, wish that I'd planted ALL those things yesterday. Later this morning, if the rain lightens, I'll try a quick muddy half-an-hour.
Agapanthus :- Beautiful foliage, and lovely summer blue flowers.
None of my gardening friends share my current passion for species Agapanthus. Hey! Anything that can survive sun or no sun, shade or no shade, rain or no rain, nibbling intentions of nosy sheep, dogs answering calls of nature, cats hiding therein, wobbly older-lady gardeners (me) falling over and squashing its leaves - and is free, free, free - is very welcome. Let's hear it for Agapanthus!
Ha! Two Wet, Muddy Hours Later...
All done - I've run out of plants - I need more! We are all completely drenched - that's one gardener, one dog, and three cats. Have thrown Rusty into the pond and myself into the shower, while the cats are busy grooming their spiky wet fur.