Online plant auctions...
Hee hee hee... I've been buying a few plants in the online auctions. When I say 'a few', one needs to put this phrase in a large country garden context. Tonight I'm off to pick up some more hosta clumps (actually twenty - the seller politely suggested they might not all fit into the boot of my little car), and on Saturday (Non-Gardening Partner willing) eight standard Rhapsody in Blue roses.
I have also put in a bid for some 'very sad Agapanthus plants', which look like they've been planted in the soil still in their plastic bags. As a compulsive rescuer, I couldn't resist, and who knows? I might get them for a dollar...
Red Nerine
Thursday 25th March
Technically I'm not allowed to spend any money on plants this year. In fact this was my only serious New Year's Resolution. But (phew!) I did give myself a generous weekly garden gnome allowance. Using the Head Gardener's discretion it's this money that I'm spending.
No Garden Gnomes...
There have been no suitable garden gnomes to buy as yet this year, and I do have certain standards... The latest gnome on offer is one of those Disney chaps with eyelashes and a floppy hat, playing tennis... Not quite my sort of chap.
Mount Bradley Revisited
Yesterday my friend and I went seriously hiking again for eight hours, again underneath Mount Bradley on Banks Peninsula. Our aim was to see if we could hike around this bulky mountain in the clockwise direction (having spectacularly failed the anti-clockwise attempt at the end of last year). What a giggle! Two old chooks (or, as my friend prefers, two old game birds) were last seen scampering up, and up, and up a rickety (sometimes near-vertical) fence-line, aiming for the escarpment, to see if there was a way through.
Mount Bradley :- You might like to read about my first meeting with this monster of a mountain.
Ha! From a distance the rocky cliffs had soft tussocky grass underneath. A puffing hour later the truth was revealed - thick thickets (very thick thickets!) of matagouri and gorse. And naturally, since Mount Bradley is a very bulky mountain (shaped like Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars) the way through to his 'backside' wasn't visible at all! It was time to eat an apple nonchalantly, drink almost the last of the water, and then suggest a graceful retreat.
Ever since then I've been thinking about 'God the Gardener' who made those most beautiful shrubberies and rockeries I hiked through yesterday. No person-designer ever combines rocks and plant quite as well. Mind you - there were no hostas or Rhapsody in Blue roses to confuse the planting plan...
Jacqueline du Pres Roses
Today I'm determined to be slow and measured in the garden. In fact I'm going to strap up my ankle as a precaution (old ladies do have issues with their feet). First I'm taking Rusty the dog for a gentle bicycle ride. I fancy a philosophical discussion about this and my dog is a better listener than Lilli-Puss (who darts on and off my knees, pivoting on her claws), or Minimus (who sits in her heated pet-bed and beams sleepily - I don't think she listens at all).
Later...
But only a tiny bit later! I'm back with my dog, and I've found the best place for the new roses - in the garden bed which faces the Frisbee Lawn, which I used to call 'Stephen's Border'. It needs a bit of a make-over anyway.
Birthday Garden Furniture
Daughter of Moosey's birthday furniture is in place by the birthday mural. It's on the edge of 'shabby chic', tending to 'fall-apart rustic' - but what a wonderful birthday present! Particularly when the recipient lives in an air-conditioned apartment in busy Bangkok. Now I'm going to wheel five barrowfuls of mulch into the new garden, before taking a leisurely lunch. One is moving rather slowly today...
Late Afternoon...
One might have moved slowly, but one moved all over the place! I've cleared spaces for the roses in Stephen's Border, planted daffodils there (particularly the Bell Song miniatures), and transplanted clumps of perennial salvia and phlomis into the back of the Shrubbery.
Aargh! A Rat in the Gunnera!
Rituals and Rats...
Now it's coffee-and-sit-on-a-seat time (I do so enjoy these little rituals). I'm off to visit Lilli-Puss (who is lolling underneath some tussocks in the Stables Garden) and to test out the Birthday Seats (which may be a visual delight but look - ahem - terribly rickety).
Ha! I'm back. Fluff-Fluff the cat tested the seats, while I watched Rusty the dog chase a rat up into the Gunnera, high above the water. The rat sat in the giant leaf for ages, weighing up its options, and then jumped for the Willow tree, missed, and fell in a graceful parabola into the water. Rusty wasn't alert enough to give chase...
Friday 26th March
I have twenty-one new hostas to plant, the roses in the orchard need watering, and the new garden needs more mulch... And I have swimming, TV programmes to catch up viewing, and a really good book about living in Botswana. It's going to be a great day full of variety!
Orchard Roses
And it's Daughter of Moosey's birthday. Yeay! Yippee! Happy Birthday DOM, hope you like your present, which I am thinking of painting purple. People might (wisely) think twice about sitting on purple wicker seats, realising they might only be decorative garden accessories...
Fluff-Fluff Cat in the Orchard
Much Much Later...
I did a ceremonial sit on the birthday seats to commune with Daughter of Moosey and read my Botswana book. Was I tempting fate? Perhaps DOM's next job will take her there? I had pretty comprehensive cat company - big Fluff-Fluff and little Minimus sat with me, while Lilli-Puss lurked nearby underneath a Calamagrostis grass (she doesn't trust FF, and nor would I).
And then I planted eighteen of the hosta clumps in the Island Bed, just as I said I would. They are jolly easy to plant when one uses a scoopy shovel. I also put in several patches of mixed daffodils.
Taking My Hostas to Heaven?
The man who sold me the hostas went on a bit about only planting things in your garden that you would like to take to heaven with you. This seems rather silly and irrelevant. I don't want to take anything with me to heaven - I'd rather leave it here on (or 'in') the earth. Maybe the next guardians of my garden will pull all the plants out - but then, hopefully, they'll be recycled like that man's hostas, which he obviously didn't want to take to heaven...
Right. I've taken Rusty for a quick walk around the garden, and put on the orchard irrigation drippers. The sun's down, and it's still really warm outside. Nice not to have to fend off any mosquitoes... I've been in one of my 'I Am So Lucky' list moods.
I am really lucky...
- ...to have not one but two lovely ginger cats.
- ...to have planted a lovely Dogwood in the middle of the Island Bed.
- ...to have lovely water features, and garden gnomes.
- ...to have lovely relatives who live in interesting places.