Keep on planting...
My continuing plan for March is simple - to keep on planting, to do some more mulching in the new garden, and to sit on a different garden seat each day to read and contemplate life.
But first - to wait for the sun to warm up things, to have a cup of hot coffee, and to reflect proudly on how hard I've worked these last six months (blimey - this is thinking big!). Then to perhaps look at larger scale plans for the next month - finishing the new garden, for example? Eek!
Dahlia Flowering
Wednesday 17th March
That's enough blithering! My usual trick would be to meander around randomly poking at this and that for three hours or more. But first, I'm off to the nursery to spend an old voucher and hopefully pick up some bags of horse manure. I'm not going to write anything else down until after I've done it, if you know what I mean.
Later, Mid-Afternoon...
Ha! I've divided up two large clumps of rock lilies (Renga Renga) and carefully planted the new pieces along the entrance path to the new garden. This has been edged with chunky logs (redirected from the woodshed). Then I've carefully planted seven bargain bin Pittosporums, all different variegated leaf varieties, and one smallish Choisya ternata. Yippee! My new garden is started. And such careful attention to detail is very good for my credibility...
...which I will now completely destroy by confessing I'm about to grab lunch and coffee and watch The Bachelor. What is it with mature lady gardeners and this silly TV programme? It must bring out the old village crone (AKA the matchmaker?) in us.
Just for the record, with my nursery voucher I bought a lovely looking fat-leaf Cordyline called 'Renegade' which can go into a pot and a crimson Pelargonium which I will use as nursery stock. That makes me sound like a proper gardener again.
+40
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+40Regarding the Most Valuable Pet competition, full of new pets - I'm about to vote for Percy, whom I love to bits. And I'm giving the newcomers some cheeky 'Welcome' points bonuses - that's what all those cat-faced icons are for. Hee hee...
Thursday 18th March
So what shall I do first today? Yet more bags of horse manure need spreading and covering. Oops - I left them in the car overnight. Gardener's cars are a bit like their fingernails - decidedly dodgy! And of course I have my bags of daffodils, the thought being that when I've planted all the bulbs I could prod Non-Gardening Partner into buying me another super-sackful. He likes daffodils...
Cats Out Walking
Ginger Cat Company
Right. My two ginger gardening boys (Percy and Fluff-Fluff) have just accompanied me on a grand tour with camera. So all my landscape shots have ginger cats wandering through them. Hmm... I hope they work! I've tried to take good pictures of the new garden, complete with work-in-progress mess - bags of newspaper, etc. And a photograph of the next uncleared bit. The before and after image trick - there's nothing there 'before', so one usually forgets to take any sort of pictures what-so-ever. And now I need to do some gardening.
Much later...
Three slow, settled hours have been happily spent raking and clearing. I am nearly down to the next irrigation stalk. My path has joined up with the one that comes through the Hump from the other side. In fact, I can see the two white cane garden chairs. Wow! This is pretty exciting - like two teams of tunnellers meeting in the middle, though rather less dramatic. It is definitely a victory for my one-woman-thinking-big approach to the garden. Yippee!
The New Garden - First Plantings
Backdating the Most Valuable Cat Competition Points
Now I am going to go back through all the Moosey Journal pages for the last year, and where I see good cat deeds (by Minimus, or Kaya, or Percy, Histeria and Lilli-Puss) I will add in some Most Valuable Pet competition points. Hee hee. If I don't take the MVP seriously, who else can I expect to? Small things amuse small minds taking a rest after thinking big...
Pine Trees and Autumn Sky
Friday 19th March
I have been out all day hiking in the Craigieburns - the forest was beautifully noisy with bellbirds, and several bumble bees took a liking to my pale blue shirt. It was a delightful day, and my hiking friend and I have planned a couple more, gruntier excursions. She has promised to vote (every day for a week) in my Most Valuable Pet competition for Histeria the tabby - I mean, what are friends for?