The good life of the Head Gardener...
Tiger the Slim
The good life of the Head Gardener is full of simple things - like windless rain in the night (good for the Moosey Garden) and going swimming (good for the Moosey cardiovascular system) and playing Bach on the piano (good for the Moosey soul).
Wednesday 18th November
And my 'Shape Up For Life' campaign has hit a new high - two success stories! The Head Gardener fits back into her grooviest denim jeans and Tiger the tortoiseshell cat is definitely lighter. Yeay!
Good Work Tiger!
Nine cheers for Tiger, the butt (oops) of fat-cat jokes in the house and the pages of this journal. She is slimmer, and therefore healthier. Good work, young Tiger!
Today my head is full of images of the gardens I visited yesterday with the Garden Club. I didn't see any phormiums or hostas. I saw the most amazing roses, though, which make my own seem crowded and spindley by comparison. And I am inspired to keep organising my irises - several grow without flowering, covered with soil and competing greenery.
Foliage in the Septic Tank Garden
Garden Envy
I always come away from seeing other people's gardens with a nice mix of envy and self-affirmation. I have lots of fragmented, random thoughts. I am happy without box hedges to trim. I could never have a garden right on a busy, noisy road.
Pond Requirements Etc.
But my pond would love some mature clumps of Louisiana and Japanese irises on its edge. And I must remember to plant my tiny Skunk Cabbage. And how can I create more room for my roses? And so on...
Right. I'm back from swimming, it's damp and a bit drizzly, so I might catch up with some mind-gardening. Or drinking coffee and checking the online plant auctions. Last night I resisted yet another 'Dig-Out My-Agapanthus for fifty cents' offer. But I will spend an hour later lopping the hedge trimmings, as a gesture to Non-Gardening Partner's generosity (he funded my Garden Club trip yesterday).
Three Hours Later...
I've been thinking as I've been lopping branches and pulling out forget-me-nots. Neither of the gardens I visited yesterday had any forget-me-nots. Not a one. And their lawns were beautifully mown, and all the edges were manicured. A man had been paid to trim all the box hedges and balls. Both gardens were exceedingly well-groomed. Excessively well-groomed? And one gardener was wearing black boots and tights and lipstick...
- 'Groom the person first - then the garden?'
- -Moosey Self-Suggestion.
Whereas the Head Gardener here at Mooseys hasn't even brushed her hair for a whole week. Like her large ginger fluffy cat she's covered in sticky biddi-bids. Groom the person first - then the garden?
However she did (before showering) vacuum up a squillion little bird feathers from the upstairs carpets. Thank you Minimus, little grey cat-huntress - this was a splendid sight for a tired gardener.
Gardening Companions
Much Later...
I've done my hair - now all I need to do is my garden. Easy. Hmm... I guess there's always tomorrow.
Thursday 19th November
Ha! It's tomorrow, all too soon, and I'm still thinking about those manicured gardens I visited - why can't I be tidier? So I've made the bed, french-plaited my hair, and after some breakfast and Bach (piano playing) I'm starting my Get the Garden Tidy campaign.
First things first - the house gardens are to be rid of the aging forget-me-nots, then annual pansies etc. can be planted in the spaces. Then I move over the water race, do the same, and rake all remaining hedge pieces up from the lawns. Non-Gardening Partner is to do an after-work lawn mowing session. NGP will probably never retire - he's too scared of being given garden associated chores to do each day.
At this time in the morning it's mentally possible to scoot around absolutely all the garden borders - doing a grand cosmetic sweep, gathering up weeds and forget-me-nots, trimming lawn edges. I'm sure I can do this.
Garden Bench
Lunchtime...
I've just popped in for a short break. I'm doing well, and I have great gardening company. Each spring I have heaps of flowering Honesty plants, but they choose their positions, tending to dominate the fronts of borders. So I'm pulling them out as well, rather that being arty and waiting until they turn silver.
Pink Pelargonium :- All my pink pelargoniums have been grown from cuttings. It's sucvh a pretty pink, too...
I've also planted some new lettuce seedlings in the Bride's patio pot, and some pansies and pink Pelargoniums in the house garden. As the forget-me-nots come out the soil underneath seems really dry, so I'm following myself around with the hose, so to speak.
I've had a silly thought. If I'd spent Tuesday here weeding and tidying instead of visiting well-groomed gardens with the Garden Club (and slightly getting the pip) I'd be so much better off. My garden would now be one day tidier - and I wouldn't have known it was messy anyway... Hmm...
A Well Groomed Garden
Right. Off back outside I go, same old, same old, with gardening cat Fluff-Fluff and Rusty the dog.
Late Afternoon...
I've planted heaps of pansies around the house - in pots and in the gardens. Good for me! I've put all the pink pelargoniums in one place, right by the patio table. And now I'm a bit tired, a bit bored, a lot hungry, and also thirsty.
So I've made a concoction with orange juice and cranberry juice (yum) and I've picked out my apres gardening garb - white cotton shirt and slim-line denims, no less. Later when NGP comes home to mow the lawns I should be able to rake up pieces of Leyland in front of him without getting my clothes grubby.
Two Mary Roses
Little Minimus turned up when I was weeding in the Shrubbery. I must remember to call her back inside, or she'll stay out into the night-time. She's always done this - stayed where her 'cat-mother' (me) has put her.