Never sulk and write...
Gardeners should never even attempt to write up their journals when sulking. And - let's face it - so many gardeners have so little to sulk about, really! Well, the Moosey Head Gardener certainly doesn't.
Sorbus Tree Berries
Sunday 8th March
Yesterday afternoon in the Moosey Garden - well, we just won't write about it! And then a sad gardening e-mail which has well and truly woken me up - a wonderful foliage-feast of a garden in Scotland called Arduaine is to be closed down.
Arduaine Gardens :- You might enjoy reading about my visit to Arduaine, when I was zooming around on my grand World Garden Tour.
Arduaine has wonderful rhododendrons, Olearia tree daisies and other New Zealand plants, the best trio of ponds in the whole gardening world, and the grooviest, friendliest Head Gardener.
Hmm... I mentioned to Non-Gardening Partner that he might like to buy the garden as a Moosey outpost on the other side of the world - and thus keep it going. There was no response. Short of sponsoring a New Zealand Cordyline I can't really think what to do. Arduaine's Head Gardener talks about 'awareness-raising'.
Sad News for Arduaine
In money matters - money matters! In hard economic times folk will have all sorts of great arguments for closing a Scottish National Trust Garden. I just think it's sad - all that work, and the pleasure that Arduaine gave to garden visitors (like me). How can a living garden be 'closed'? Are all the plants auctioned off, the paths dug up, the trees felled? How foolish.
+10
+10
Congratulations to Tiger the Tortoiseshell, the original Moosey fat cat, and B-Puss, elegant, not fat, white, and sadly deceased, for being used as a water-colour artist's models. Two lovely furry creatures! Aargh! Two others, Minimus and Mugsy the disabled cat, are play-fighting again. There is much wrestling with furry tummies on display, and giant sideways leaps from the little kitten.
Memo to self, in form of small random list:
- Replace the Brides in the patio pots with seasonal colour - daisies, maybe.
- Remember to sit down when weeding.
- Ask NGP to drill drainage holes in the half wine barrel.
Right - I'm now going to finish the re-dig of the Glass-House Garden edge. At the first sniff of a sulk there will be strong words spoken - and a stronger cup of tea produced to revive the gardening spirits. Gardeners who have said 'yes' to the local Garden Club visiting (in three weeks time! Aargh!) are simply in no position to sulk. All they need to do is work, work, work - and finish, finish, finish.
Lunchtime, Resting Sensibly...
Ha! I have no idea who yesterday's sulking female grumpus was. Today (apparently the international Day of the Woman) sees the Moosey Head Gardener (me) in fine form. I've been weeding in the vegetable garden, which is rather full of non-vegetables - big Nicotiana Sylvestris plants, Lavenders, and rusty tussock grasses. Oops! I've also been stacking firewood. The woodshed was Minimus the kitten's old home - I've just given him a cuddle and some fresh meat and told him how much I love him being a house kitten. He is now curled up in big Fluff-Fluff's cat-box - hope this is OK...
Pampas Grass in the Hump Garden
Now I have half an hour in which to finish the Glass-House Garden, then I need to scrub the gardening fingernails, trim my English Sheep-dog fringe, and change into burgundy robes for a choir concert. Multi-talented? You bet! While I remember - thanks, spammers, for offering to help with my bankruptcy. Your services will not be needed - yet. This gardener is even paying for her pea-straw bales to be delivered!
Monday 9th March
Today I am off for a swim, and might return via the nursery with some ready-made pelargoniums for the wine barrel and some daisies for the big patio pots. Then I'm finishing clearing behind the glass-house and burning the rubbish. Beautiful rain last night - so I may also plant my new scruffy shrubs in the Hump. Those wasps worry me, though. Rotten things! Luckily I'm not allergic to stings, and obviously nor is my dog!
Westerland Rose Cluster
Later...
Now it's later, and I've worked really hard. I've trimmed floppy grasses away from the path, trimmed all the Shasta daisies, pulled out all sorts of unwanted seedlings, and cleared the path of weeds. It has been consumer tested by my dog and me, in readiness for the Garden Club ladies, whom I hope will wear sensible shoes. Aargh!
Cats and Kittens
Percy the ginger cat is so even-tempered. He allows Minimus to bite his tail - no problem. He lets Rusty the dog lick his face and he flops over passively for Mugsy my disabled cat, who then pounces and thinks she's beaten him up. Every cat household could do with a 'Percy'.
Now his gingerness is squashed into Minimus's tiny cat basket, while Minimus is fast asleep in Histeria's basket (see the picture below). We are all playing musical cat baskets in front of the computer.
Minimus - Wild Kitten?
Tuesday 10th March
Well - what have I done today? I've got all the weeds out from between the house patio tiles, and the clover out from the car lay-by, and I think I've made some decisions. The nursery was soooooo disappointing, particularly the Pelargoniums (orangy red and bilious pink only) and Daisies (tiny, quiet things, with no pizzazz).
The patio pots are getting a make-over, in time for the Garden Club visit. The green Astelia in the big terracotta pot will go into the soil somewhere, to be replaced by a newer, younger model. Sounds a bit like a bloke's mid-life crisis! I'll get some daisies from the other nursery, which also has fat-leafed Green Goddess Cordylines at 20% off. My outdoor 'bookcase' of sedums needs tidying - the Helichrysum is finished, so its pot can have some rich purple Verbenas.
Pond News
Great excitement - the man with the scoopy digger has arrived to look at the Moosey pond. It is being cleaned out in a few weeks time! Wow... Back soon.