No wind, no rain...
A weekend in the middle of March - no wind, no rain, and still plenty of plants to plant. And the new garden - my goodness how quickly it's growing! Can I finish it by the end of March? Hope so...
Sedum, Aster, and Bee
Saturday 20th March
Still to plant from the nursery sale is a Physocarpus called 'Shady Lady' with dark foliage. It is supposed to be a non-fussy, low maintenance, very hardy woody shrub - nice! Two juvenile Phormiums and a white Ceanothus will be put in pots. Ha! I am organised, and it's only 8 am.
Aralia :- I like these strong foliage plants - as long as they're sheltered from the winter frost.
I've got three rather large Aralias coming. They'll be sheltered from frost in the new garden area, and seem to cope with minimal watering.
And I also have four budget hosta clumps, which I'll probably plant in the Dog Kennel Garden. Hee hee - I did pay the tiniest bit of money for these new plants, but I haven't bought a new garden gnome all year...
Late Afternoon...
Hmm... The new garden clearing continues, but my rubbish has to wait for the fire ban to be lifted. Now I wouldn't like to imply that I'm not making progress - and I do understand that gardening cannot always be glamorous. And I do particularly enjoy creating new paths. I've 'found' more edging logs - they have to be the right diameter, you understand. But it starts feeling like fairly dull work, and then I start feeling dull as a person. Aargh!
- 'One woman - thinking big, doing little.'
- -Moosey's Personal Motto.
So I make myself look up and see how far I've got. Yes! Have faith! Be positive! I can see progress! I've only worked for three hours, but that's perfectly OK. Here's my motto: One woman - thinking big, doing little. Eek! That doesn't quite look right...
Lady Hillingdon Rose
Garden Surprises
And my garden is full of silly, personal surprises. I found a quite normal (and probably terribly common) red Nerine flowering in the Driveway Border. Aargh! Where did you spring from? And my Lady Hillingdon rose, planted in the shade really close to some huge gum trees, with no watering or compost, is blooming beautifully. She is obviously one independent lady, a rose with a mind of her own.
Sunday 21st March
Eek - it's still quite dark! I'm sensing that daylight saving will end soon. I've been for a walk to feed Lilli-Puss and to get Rusty the dog out of his kennel.
Thinking...
And I've been thinking - today I need to work on little details in my garden. Otherwise I get swamped with the big stuff which seems to be going nowhere, and Non-Gardening Partner keeps asking me if I'm alright. Dear bloke!
Today I have some exciting little plans:
- Clean up around new Car Bridge, and plant daffodils.
- Get potting mix, shift the standard Brides out of their patio pots, and replace with Cordylines.
- Pot up Agaves and display them by the Stables.
I also have things to plant - three new Aralias, five hosta clumps, tall white Campanula, and the last of the Polygonatum. Then I can always mooch away in the new garden and clear some more land if I want to.
Pink Patio Roses
But I do promise not to get gloomy. Gardens should never make a gardener feel gloomy. Hmm...