Grasshopper weeding...
Multi-Coloured Daffodils
I love my garden - but I am oh so slow planting my new roses. And I scratch around doing grasshopper weeding in an aimless, random fashion. I need to be tougher with myself.
Sunday 12th September
And tough can start - TODAY! Feeling overwhelmed by weeds is foolish. One needs to create a management plan, plot acceptability levels of weeds for different garden areas, sort out some schedules, pop in some signposts - or scaffolding? Not sure if these words are out-of-date. How about 'Just do it'? And preferably 'do it' each day, mornings would be good, before the Moosey brain and body lose their oomph and start shutting down.
Good Advice...
Regarding weeding, rescuing self-sown Cornflowers and Pansies is great, but be prepared. Have a suitable utensil within which to place the seedlings, and then be absolutely committed to replanting them within the hour. Good advice.
New White Roses
Now to some much more creative decisions - my new yellow roses. I think I'll plant some in the Pond Paddock gardens, sunny side borders. And the whites can go by the water race, as planned yesterday. I'll do that first - the lambs have their second feed about 9 am, and then they can come out and 'do gardening'.
We have three more pregnant ewes, but no more lambs have been born in the paddock as yet. Fat Fred my ex-pet lamb is in there too - what a size! When Fred needed to be weaned I was expecting visitors from overseas, and thought the small boy would like to meet and feed a pet lamb. So I kept Fred in the bottle-feeding loop, so to speak, for far too long. As a result he is permanently oval shaped in both directions.
Wait For Me!
Gardening With Animals
Yesterday I had two lambs snuffling around my hands, big Fluff-Fluff the cat rolling in the planting hole, the bellbird squeaking and whistling in the gum tree overhead, Rusty the bird-tormented dog barking his head off. Gardening with animals is fun...
The spring Prunus blossom trees are just magical, and the daffodils too. Every day I pick the flowers that are leaning over for the house vases. I have some beautiful new multi-coloured varieties (from my huge bag of mixed bulbs purchased and planted in autumn).
Right. Morning coffee calls, and then I'm going to make an early start. I have so much to do!
Much later...
Grasshopper gardening starts off being really fun - it's never boring, satisfying to be doing more than one type of task, even exhilarating. But later in the day when one loses confidence - aargh! Why didn't I just stick to planting the new roses and finish that one job? However, most of the whites are in the ground, I've found all sorts of dreadful garden places along the water race which need weeding, an Azalea which needs shifting, and waterside paths which need re-stoning. Plus more, yet more, of those coarse green carex grasses to dig out.
Honorine de Brabant :- She is one of the most beautiful striped roses in the world. Well, that's what I've read...
And some seriously frightening Lemon Balm (I think this is what it is) is seeding madly. Did I in all innocence plant this to start with? Do I want it to colonise the water's edge of the Dog-Path Garden underneath the old rose Honorine de Brabant - and beyond, for it is definitely a plant going places.
This may be another gardening oops, but the plant (a herb?) has a beautiful smell and lovely leaves. I will review the situation after a hot shower.
Lamb Naming Tomorrow
The pet lambs have gone up a size, feed-wise. Little girl lamb is still little, but she's so much stronger, and well-covered. Big boy lamb just may be allowed to become the new Moosey ram - Non-Gardening Partner has a couple of weeks to make this decision, so to speak. And as to names - the lambs have named themselves. I'll announce details tomorrow.
Red Rhododendrons
Thank you, dear earth, for providing such a gentle, settled spring day, and hurray for NGP who has spent most of the day putting the interior ceiling and walls into Pond Cottage.
Monday 13th September
It's damp and drizzling, and I've just given the lambs their early morning feed. Little lamb is still a bit snuffly and I'm going to take her to see the vet tomorrow. Minimus could do with her booster cat-flu injection, too. I don't take the older cats for injections - we have quite a closed cat community here, cross fingers.
Online plant auctions - hee hee. As well as reminding me what I should be planting (seeds) or looking out for (Forsythia) there are bargains to be had. Yesterday late afternoon we picked up a trailer load of plants in pots - four green Cordylines in blue pots, three feathery natives (possibly Miros) in large black pots, three big sedums, three of those golden trailing sedums, a huge terracotta pot full of black mondo grass, and various other little scruffy things.
Non-Gardening Partner had to pay the money - twelve dollars. Now he is saying it can be my birthday present. Opportunist!
Pet Lambs Stu and Milly
I am starting today's gardening with weeding. Mornings are essentially the most positive times, weed-wise. I can do this. I can look after my rather large and ever-expanding garden. I can get 'on top of' the weeds - well, I will, anyway, because I often end up sitting in the dirt.
Morning Tea Time...
Out we go with the morning tea on a tray - Rusty's dog biscuit, my coffee, top-up bottles of 60mls for each of the lambs, and some sneaky dried food for Fluff-Fluff the cat. This morning little girl lamb fed properly, taking the bottle standing up. I'm calling her Milly, which sort of suits her size. And big boy lamb is Stu - Stu lamb, or lamb Stu ... just joking. If he is allowed to become a ram he can be called Stuart. Both lambs have gone up a size...
Fluff-Fluff the Hiding Cat
So far so good in the weeding world - I've spent two hours in just one garden place (the Stables Garden), and planted three of the new yellow roses therein. I've also sorted out my huge collection of new plants in pots (complete with twelve dollars worth of snails).
Later...
Apart from a large, unwelcome black dog called Bob who has just wandered in, all is quiet. I'm going to clean myself up and then reward myself for a good day's weeding with no whining or whinging (both those words look very odd when spelt out). Bob is locked up in Rusty's dog motel, and if Bob's owner doesn't show he'll have to go to the animal pound tomorrow morning (no chances can be taken when there are lambs around). The spring sun is shining and the Moosey daffodils look gorgeous. Yippee for spring, I say, and the refreshing regrowth of all things in the garden.