Grateful garden...
Yesterday I had a brilliant day in the garden. Why? Because I did lots of little, detailed things, and saw small messes transformed into beautiful orderliness. My garden was grateful, looking as if I really cared about it. Warm thoughts, warm thoughts...
This Garden is Tidier!
Monday 22nd March
So taking pride in little things is the answer to garden happiness! Like planting sets of daffodils, shovelling a few barrowfuls of home-made compost (just a few), taking time to plant the Aralias in the new garden properly and thoughtfully, trimming overhanging pine tree branches (so easy to ignore them)...
Coral Flower Carpet Roses
Balance...
Today I will go for balance. I should clear more of the new garden, but this is a seriously big task - dour, repetitive, uncreative work. It might be best to tackle this first, while listening to the cricket (eek! we are playing sooooooo badly). I can do this without grumping - I can rake, continue laying the new path, and spread some mulch. This is such good garden practice - looking after the soil first, planting later...
Then again I could stay with the 'small details' scenario, and do some planting and weeding...
Lunchtime...
Ha! I got as far as the burning heap, tipped my rubbish out, and then stayed to weed and tidy in the vegetable garden. It's a minor disgrace, but I do have a bucket full of produce - tomatoes, red and purple potatoes, carrots, and the first parsnips. Meanwhile the cricket (like the gardener) is groaning along...
Late Afternoon...
I chose the weeding option, and planted lots of new perennials in the gaps in the Glass-House Garden. The shrubby Lavatera roots came out, as did several oversized brown tussocks, and in went Campanula, Polygonatum, and a red-leafed Physocarpus. I worked for another two hours, and I'm happy. Even though I didn't touch the new garden area, I've done other things that needed doing. Fluff-Fluff the cat lolled and rolled in the dirt as I worked - he enjoyed himself immensely. What a sweet cat!
Sleepy Fluffy Cat
And now I'm all clean, and thoughtful, and quite proud, oven-baking a trayful of my own vegetables for dinner. A nice end for a nice, mellow day's work.
Phormium and White Anenomes
Tuesday 23rd March
Right. Not even a list, just a simple instruction to self. Today I am swimming, followed by gardening. The garden is starting to look very scruffy, and it's not just me - honestly! Dahlias and roses are finishing, the big Nicotiana Sylvestris plants are getting blown over in the wind, lots of summer flowering perennials (like daylilies and phloxes) are over and need trimming back. It is definitely autumn, the slow-down season - the time to be shutting up the garden shop...
I just have to trust that doing a little gardening (four hours, for example) each day is enough. Non-Gardening Partner thinks I'm a bit silly, always expanding and creating new gardens. Hmm... It really can't matter if a gardener works for an hour, a morning, a day, or a week. The point is that he or she is getting out there and doing something. Let's see what progress I will make today - because I will. Ha!
Oops...
There's something else, hee hee, and I'm not totally sure I'll get away with this. I have just bought Daughter of Moosey a wonderful birthday present for 2010 - it's her birthday this Friday. DOM lives in Bangkok, so I have bought her some groovy Birthday Garden Furniture - two wicker seats and a little table. They are going in the little lawn area behind her Birthday Rose Garden, next to her Birthday Mural. Oops...
Mid Afternoon...
I've only worked for two hours, doing noticeable things like weeding the front of the Septic Tank Garden and invisible things like spreading barrowfuls of mulch and horse manure on the new garden. But two hours is good! It isn't two hours eating chips, or watching daytime reality TV, or gossiping, or reading a globally gloomy newspaper...
Honey Yellow Roses
Ha! It's time for a compulsory rest on a garden seat. Sitting thereon is a big part of garden life - I'm practising patience and experiencing gratitude for the warm afternoon sun. Summer's lease hath all too short a date, after all...
Much, Much Later...
I've planted my new hosta clumps at the top of the Island Bed and done more mulching, accompanied by my little grey cat Minimus. The trees are alive with fantails - these acrobatic birds dart and hover, hoping that human movement will create some airborne insects. Minimus is an ardent hunter, and finds close birds irresistible. Aargh! To my knowledge, touch wood and all that, no fantail has ever been caught by a Moosey cat. Please may this continue!
Now the hoses are on - the dry nor-west winds we've been having suck all the moisture out of the ground. And, I suspect, they mop up any excess Head Gardener energy, too. It always feels more tiring gardening in the wind.