A plants and bulbs week...
I am having a plants and bulbs week - the planting in the soil thereof. For example, the path behind the house is blocked with this and that bucket, full of arum lilies, campanula, polygonatum, pieces of red flax, some purple Ajuga, and so on...
Blushing Pink Iceberg Roses
Monday 15th March
I've also left some Bergenia clumps on a path in the Stumpy (AKA Willow Tree) Garden. Hundreds of daffodils sit in the garage in netting bags, ready for the soil.
Most Valuable Pet Updated! Yippee!
But first - huge website excitement. The Most Valuable Pet page has been updated, and now includes all the new Moosey cats. For a while there it was a bit overfull of the dearly departed...
Vote for Kaya :- Check out all the pets you can now vote for in my Most Valuable Pet competition.
So my three wild cats Histeria, Percy and Lilli-Puss can receive votes, as can young Minimus and the sleek black Lady Kaya. I've just voted for Percy - my long, slender, ginger boy-cat.
No votes for Tiger the tortoiseshell - I've just found her in the pantry, right inside Rusty's dog biscuit bag, munching happily. Naughty Tiger! Right. Hot coffee, sunscreen, and off I go outside.
Lunchtime...
Yippee! Every time I've planted something fresh I've cut down a clump of old Shasta daisies. They've finished flowering - such is the ebb and flow of gardening life. I've had a happy, well-balanced morning, finished off with some grunty digging up of green Carexes by the Willow Tree Path. The Bergenias are taking their place.
Now I have another compulsory lunchtime sit-and-read session before I return to my work. It's a great rule to stop and sit somewhere in the garden, at least once a day.
Stumpy Garden Seats
Later...
Another yippee - I have had a superb day. I rested on the blue chairs in the Stumpy Garden, and then I weeded nearby, cleared the path, and planted daffodils and Bergenias along its edge. I've thrown the old Carexes on the rubbish heap - there are plenty of smaller fresh green seedlings I can pot up.
Burgundy Iceberg Roses
Impeccable Timing...
The summer perennials are really finishing up now. I've collected seed from magenta Lychnis and white Clary Sage. Even the Echinacea are starting to look a bit tatty. Then the Iceberg roses (white, blushing pink, pink, and burgundy) are having their second great blooming flush. This is why I grow Icebergs - their impeccable sense of timing. I must remember this and possibly get some more...
More Website Excitement...
More website excitement - now my journals from 2008, 2009, and 2010 are directly clickable from the front page. Ha! I always knew I was up-to-date, but the casual clicker might have thought otherwise. Thank you to my lovely web-master. And thank you to my garden for being such a nice place in which to spend a day.
Tuesday 15th March
I'm going swimming, and then I fancy another planting session - it makes me feel creative, less of a gardening machine. And I'm very proud that the Willow Garden path now works properly. Some silly gardener had planted Carexes far too close to its edge...
Asters and Straw-Flowers
Later...
I've been working by the Moosey Pond with my buckets of arum lilies. I've found out the proper name (Zantedeschia) and that they're poisonous - a danger lurking in my own backyard! Aargh! However, I've planted them because they were free - what sort of an attitude is that?
The Pond Decking
Anyway, the grass edge of the pond is tidied (sorry, frog, but I had to rearrange your stones). I've also put in some miniature daffodils, and raked up lots of rubbish.
Today I Sat on the Pond Garden Bench...
And then I took a glass of chilled water and my book back to the pond and sat on the old park bench in the afternoon sun. It's a magical place, with leafy trees, reflections, the gentle noise of water trickling in from the intake pipe (and Rusty the dog 'singing' along with the fire siren). Across the water several garden gnomes are happily fishing, minding their own gnomeish business. I love my pond - I should sit here more often.