Autumn is alive...
The First Autumn Leaf!
Eek! Autumn has suddenly come alive, with its cooler nights and leaf colours. But the land is still too dry. I'm busy planting my new things, and then watering, and watering, and watering...
Sunday 11th April
I am mentally organised (well, well, well - it's amazing what a bit of serious of bed-gardening can do). The Stables Garden, today, gets a minimal makeover. In go the new grasses (Miscanthus, Chinochloa, two Calamagrostis) to go with all the other grasses. Out come the gladioli (they didn't flower at all this summer). Ha! A garden theme is appearing. Makes sense...
Bulb News
Yippee! I won the online plant auction for twenty Alliums bulbs. You see, when visiting Chanticleer in Pennsylvania I feel in deep gardening-love with purple Alliums. But I fell in love with not one, but lots, all mass planted, and so far I've only bought in eight or nine. And further to the bulb news, today we go and pick up one thousand mixed daffodils. They are all from a local daffodil farm.
Animal News
Not a Good Look, Tiger the Cat!
Right. The morning has started in fine style. Tiger has disgraced herself on a pile of wet towels (OK, OK - they shouldn't have been lying on the floor), Rusty has tipped over his water bowl (again!), and I've wandered the length and breadth of the orchard with some raw pet meat for the harrier hawk I'm helping - no sight of her.
Random Cat!
Lilli-Puss (random as ever) had it instead for her breakfast. We sat together, mid-grey cat and silver-grey person, on the two white cane chairs in the Hump Garden. We are both as random as each other? Hmm...
Enjoy the Autumn Day...
It's easy and natural to think positive thoughts with a purring cat for company. The Cordyline grove in here looks great - there's been just enough water for these toughies. The paths are great, too, and I love the leafiness of the Pittosporums. And just think - my new garden behind the Shrubbery will eventually connect up with this quiet, leafy place. Yeay! I am getting some things right! I will enjoy this autumn day...
Late Afternoon...
I've dug up a bucketful of gladioli bulbs (some should be creamy white and some a soft pink). I planted all the grasses in the Stables Garden, plus some of the thousand new daffodils - the Lavender stayed put.
Flower Carpet Rose
Afternoon tea was taken on the rustic garden bench, with just a few interruptions to shift hoses, surrounded by pretty flower colours and foliage. Several of my roses near the seat are flowering again, and the yellow Coreopsis is still blooming - that's been happening for at least two months. The old fashioned roses are coping, but I'm having to keep up their watering regime. Some had their tips nibbled at by the ram. Such are the perils of a good home in the country!
White Seats :- My white cane chairs sit in a rather magical spot, surrounded by a Pittosporum forest.
Then Lilli-Puss popped out of the garden - that's twice in one day! So we went back over to the white cane seats, she sat on one and showed me her tummy, while I sat on the other (and did nothing of the sort). It has been a lovely gardening day.
Tuesday 13th April
Right. Today I am working really hard AND smart, with lots of short breaks sitting down here and there, enjoying the whole garden. I tend to garden as I dress - I get stuck on a favourite shirt (or woolly top) and want to wear it every single day. In the garden I can spend days thinking about just one area, poking and pottering around in it, and totally forgetting about the rest.
Big Yellow Daylilies
Well, that isn't going to happen today. When one has a thousand daffodils bulbs to plant, naturally one will be scattering them around all parts of the garden. Rusty's Lavender Garden is first - wind or no wind I am definitely raking gum leaves off this garden. Horse manure bags, too, need to be spread on the Frisbee Garden corner and bulbs planted in there. Ha! A gardener with a sense of purpose - long may it last.
Oops...
A rather large oops before I go outside. The garden shed man is coming today. And yesterday I bought a delightful peggy-squares woollen blanket for the bed that is going in the shed. Shush...
Rhapsody in Blue Rose and Buds
Later, Break Number One...
Achievements - daffodils planted in Lavender Garden and around house. Many, many gum tree leaves raked up - four barrowfuls dumped by fence-line. Have tentatively ordered garden shed to arrive in the middle of May - as one does...
Late morning coffee taken on the patio steps, surrounded by pretty blue Lobelia (still flowering), cats (Histeria and Fluff-Fluff), and Rusty the bone-crunching dog (yum - the first roast meal of autumn). Delightful.
Later, Break Number Two...
I got rather carried away, and I've now been in the garden nearly six hours. I've weeded a large part of the Hen House Garden, raked up leaves and planted Lavender and daffodils. It's been a real autumnal day - no wind, no searing hot sun, and lots of bird noise. I've taken photographs of roses - in fact, anything colourful I can spy in the general greenery.
Hen House Garden Tidy-Up
My current bellbirds have a really minimal song of just three piping notes - whatever happened to last year's chaps with the tootling arpeggios? There's no sign in the orchard of the harrier hawk I was feeding - hopefully that's a good sign, and she's up high, soaring on the thermals, looking for her own food.
Lazy Cats!
I wouldn't dream of ending the day's writing on a negative note, but... Absolutely no cats came near me. They've all stayed away - little Minimus fast asleep inside her pet cube, the fatties staking out the kitchen, long, lean, lovely Percy squashed into a box (which can't be comfortable). There's no sign of black Kaya, and Lilli-Puss, after appearing three times in one day, has obviously gone off for a week to balance things out. Random feline!
One Bag of Daffodils, One Dog
Well, I think this is pretty much 'it' for the day. I mean - nobody gardens in a freshly laundered white cotton shirt and clean jeans, do they? As soon as I've had afternoon coffee I'm taking my dog for a walk, during which I can stretch out my legs and debrief. Dear Rusty - how bored he must get!