Can this new month be even better?
Right. Last month I was brilliant in the garden - modest, too. Can this new month be even better? Oh yes, yes, yes! Take today, for example. I am about to go weeding. I will probably do this every day...
Crab-Apple Blossom
Thursday 1st October
These cute little green things I call October weeds have popped up everywhere. I'd like to claim they come into my garden from the mulch... The dry weed seeds bounce up and hit the weeding gardener on the nose - ouch! Gardeners are by their very nature dreamy people - this rather flamboyant method of seed dispersal always takes me by surprise. I have Lavenders and squillions of Agapanthus divisions to plant - I've run out of stones for the retaining wall for their new garden.
October Daffodil
Later...
I've been sooooooo good! How about weeding for five hours, on and off, with a few diversions like trimming the Miscanthus and planting the remaining Lavenders. Minimus has provided good cat company - she's going to be a very small adult cat, so her name will definitely not need to be changed to Maximus.
The newly-weeded gardens over the water race look very pretty - the red Maples are in leaf, the Cercis Forest Pansy is starting to blossom, as is the weeping Crab-Apple. And lots of self-sown blue pansies and forget-me-nots are flowering. I love these little, low blues!
Cat News - Jerome
Jerome the old grey cat is the happiest, purriest old thing, but her limpy leg hardly works at all now, and the shoulder joint has really swelled up. She looks like she's coming to bits! So we've gone back to the vet. I'm afraid it isn't good news, but I knew that. The vet doesn't think she'll see another Christmas, and has given me something for her pain. And still she purrs loudly and bunts my face.
Jerome :- Jerome has one of the oldest pages on the Moosey website, in the cats and dogs section.
Dear cat! She's had eighteen amazing years, and she was my very first gardening cat. All my early Moosey garden pictures feature Jerome - sitting on benches, lolling in tussocks, or just following me around.
Tomorrow I go back to dig more Agapanthus plants. It's like smorgasbord gardening for greedy people - all you can dig out for a dollar. I've decided to bulk-plant the taller pieces in the Welcome Garden, digging really deep holes so the plants don't fall over. Smaller, less floppy pieces will go by the new stone wall, where they are more 'on show'. It takes me ages to dig out and replant, but free plants are worth my time and energy. Yes, they are!
Friday 2nd October
I have had THE most amazing day. It started off fairly robustly with me digging out heaps more Agapanthus from a garden in town. On my way home I felt drawn to check a certain charity shop - could I be bothered? Yes, no, maybe... Well, I did call in, and found the assistant in the act of unpacking a box of garden ornaments. Aargh! It was amazing - there were heaps of faded garden gnomes. I took the lot!
Rescued Garden Gnomes
Some have Disney faces, and there's a set of smaller ones with sharp red pointed hats, rolling and leaping about. A few 'normal' ones are standing around holding shovels and spades, and a few cuties with really curly beards are leaning on little plant pots. I giggled in the car the whole way home.
Rescued Garden Gnomes
So today I rescued twenty-one garden gnomes (and a snail and a smiling mushroom which got in the box by mistake), to add to the six I've already got. Pretty silly, really... Which reminds me - another garden gnome has popped up in the online auctions, a 'lying down lazy-bones gnome who is surplus to requirements'. Surplus to requirements - poor thing!
Back To Being Sensible...
Back to the more sensible record of today's gardening - I've planted out eight huge bags of Agapanthus, and now I have just four to go. I'm hoping the plants will stay green, not flop too much, and just get on with growing. When I wake up properly (I've had an apres-shower afternoon snooze) I'm going to slosh some buckets of water around. What a day! Hee hee hee.
Flowering Now - Spring Stars
Ha! I'm back after a walk around with camera. All sorts of things are happening - a flowering list!
Flowering List
- Canary Bird rose and Mary Rose.
- The patio Wisteria (which smells gorgeous).
- The President Roosevelt rhododendrons.
- Blue Ajuga, and all colours of Wallflowers.
- The flowering cherry trees in the Pond Paddock.
I know where I'm weeding first thing tomorrow - along the edge of the Shrubbery, which is filled with purple flowering Honesty. If my soil wasn't so fertile then the weeds wouldn't grow, would they? I am so lucky!