A groovy pair of secateurs...
All of a sudden I'm trimming and pruning and dragging lots of tree and shrub rubbish onto huge heaps. It's all because Non-Gardening Partner has donated me a groovy pair of secateurs. Good gardeners should praise their garden tools!
Blue Lobelia
Friday 6th February
Today was another hot day in gardening paradise, with brilliant kitten-company. I had two long sessions trimming and clearing further along the Apple Tree Border. Two large Pseudopanax trees have been re-invented - as shrubs.
Apple Pruning
I'm sorry to offend any precision pruners, but I also nipped a lot of ends off apple tree branches, hanging low with fruit. The small path which slides behind my Graham rhododendrons is clear again, and people using it will not get their heads knocked by low swinging apples. Ouch!
Heirloom Apples
My shredding and burning pile by the new pump house (new! with a beautifully hung rustic door!) is getting huge - this surely is decent evidence that I'm working hard in the February garden.
Saturday 7th February
Yippee! Last night, completing a wonderful day, we won the cricket against Australia. Phew! National pride, like my personal garden pride, is semi-restored. Every time I lean over to pick up a piece of Eucalyptus bark from a border or a lawn I should celebrate!
White Camellia :- Another Moosey image is lovingly recycled, thanks to the big, good internet world.
Congratulations to the Moosey white Camellia for being asked to appear on the cover of a poetry book. Chosen for its slight imperfections, too - that's a bit like my garden pictures being involved in the 'positively messy' publication a few years ago. Hee hee...
In the real garden Camellias often show their tiny flaws - and worse! At this time of year, of course, all those ugly browned-off flower petals are forgiven.
Nanny Cat with Kitten
So what should I do first today in the garden? I want to do something that Minimus the kitten can share in. The Pond Paddock is close by, delightfully leafy at this time of year, and I have some variegated creeping violets to find a shady spot for. Hmm... Time for a coffee and a serious think.
Later...
The house borders are cleared - grass trimmed by the stone paving path, the catmint semi-trimmed (it will bloom again), lots of weeds removed, and all the remaining Lychnis plants pulled out of the middle of the Island Border. And I've been dead-heading the red dahlias.
Minimus the kitten leapt in and out of the corner fern, keeping an eye on me. Fluff-Fluff and Percy the two big ginger cats kept their lazy eyes on him. Kittens are so tiny compared to the big real thing! Fluff-Fluff has become a sort of nanny-cat.
I now take my lunch, afternoon tea, etc., outside and sit on the Laundry Seat, near where Minimus plays. I do take this cat-mother role very seriously!