Oh what a beautiful morning...
Sings: Oh what a beautiful morning... Then stops singing, just in case everything isn't going my way! It's very mild today, but the wind has stopped - phew! I don't want all my cherry tree blossom blown down just yet - it's looking so magnificent.
Cherry Blossom
Sunday 17th October
I love the garden being full of forget-me-nots and honesty, but it's a great big blessing that these lovely flowers self-seed. This brings me to my own seed raising efforts for the spring of 2010. The lettuces are good, the blue cornflowers are still quite tiny, and there's little else to say. I've left things far too late this year? Better late than never? My range of seeds sown (namely, two) appears fairly limited? Rather unimaginative?
Flowering Pale Pink Rhododendron
Get Onto It TODAY!
I will want lots and lots and lots of flowers to fill up gaps. So obviously I am in for a huge spend up of trays of annuals from the nursery. Unless I get onto it TODAY!
Daisies and pelargoniums - take cuttings NOW! And when in doubt, try pansies, pansies, and more pansies. Some blue petunias would be nice. I think I need to buy a few seed packets. And some seed raising mix - see how disjointed and terribly unplanned this gardening phase is becoming?
I'll ask Non-Gardening Partner if he wants to come to the nursery. Poor man - why drag him into it? Oh well - he can choose the carrots. The vegetable garden gets planted this coming weekend (Labour Weekend) - that's the local date when the soil is magically warm enough. I've collected my own beans...
Later, Mid-afternoon...
Things are not quite as bad as I thought. Some pink Lavatera seedlings were ready to be pricked out, and I've popped the lettuces and cornflowers behind the glass-house to harden off. I've sown coloured beets, larkspur, basil, cosmos, petunias, salvia hominum, white clary sage, pansies and strawflowers. I've done more cuttings of daisies etc. There's enough potting mix to start the patio grow-bags, where my tomato plants are going. I'll sow spring onions and carrots in one of the bags.
Tiger the Cat :- Tiger is my fattest, laziest cat. She has the shortest little legs.
Dear Tiger the cat! Non-Gardening Partner carried her out to the glass-house, and - oh dear - she has absolutely no idea how to be a gardening cat. She kept miaowing (no confidence), then sat on the pottles of new seeds (eek), and finished up lurking underneath my wheelbarrow. This of course moves along with me, at which times there was much cat confusion. This cat definitely needs to get out more!
Stu the Lamb
Pet Lamb Report
Stu is now eating a lot of fresh grass blades. This is a good thing. And his wool is definitely growing. He has turned into an easy-care lamb.
Hee hee - we are off to pick up a couple of turquoise pots with hydrangeas inside, my latest budget auction spoils. Sometimes the terribly serious darker blue pots look a bit boring...
Later...
I've planted up three tomato bags, and repotted a silver Astelia and a small variegated Agave. The hoses are on and I've noticed some more things - blue Aquilegias are flowering, and so is the big yellow Banksia rose, high up in the plum tree. Very soon it will be iris time - the little dwarf ones are almost flowering. And the Wisteria on the patio is getting more and more fragrant as the little flowers open out. What a lovely perfume...
Wisteria
Monday 18th October
Let me see - how productive do I want to be today? First of all I'm moving backwards - I'm worried that the tomato plants are too small for the grow bags, so I'm going to pop them back into suitable sized pots. Blast - I've got some of my labels mixed up, too. I'll use any excess potting mix to repot the patio succulents. Good thinking.
Secondly - more seeds and cuttings. Some of those delightful purple violas in the vegetable garden can be scooped up and popped around the edges of pots. And there are squillions of Calendula seedlings therein - many of these can be popped into containers before I go vegetable crazy next weekend.
Thirdly, hoses on roses. I need to keep ahead of watering, especially the new roses planted only a month or so ago. I've got a grunty spray bottle called 'Beat-A-Bug' with which I'll blast any visible aphids.
Spring Herbs
A List In Disguise!
Fourthly (hee hee - a list in disguise) I have pots of Renga Renga and pots of Penstemons, all of which could be planted out. Here are two thoughts - plant the Renga Renga in the New Zealand natives garden by Rooster Bridge, and the Penstemons in the perennials garden. Sharp thinking for an early morning, pre-hot-cup-of-coffee gardener.
And when to get Stu the pet lamb out for his morning wander-around? You see, grass-eating lambs make tiny little solid messes on patios, and I worry about using sprays when his nose is near. He can come vegetable gardening. Right. All is in order, mainly the Moosey mind.
Four Hours Later...
Aha! The innocent days of Mary had a Little Lamb etc. are over. Stu lamb has been eating fresh green rose shoots and new fern fronds. Aargh! And he won't come when I call him - something to do with a full tummy, I presume. So, alas, he is banished to his little paddock, to be alone and palely loitering...
Black Cat Kaya
Mucking About
I have really been mucking about this morning, in the best gardening sense of the word. I've even weed-sprayed the laundry stone steps (dandelions, clover, and a creeping mint which I never. ever, ever planted, honestly). Some of the older pelargoniums and purple sage cuttings were rooted and ready to go into their own pots. I've planted all the sugar snap peas and Jersey Benne gourmet potatoes, too.
Tuesday 19th October
All I've done today in the garden is to shift the hoses around and attempt some fairly low-key bendy weeding. Lilli-Puss has been following me around, trying to climb up my legs. Ouch! It's been horribly windy. Stu the pet lamb has had a great day - drinking milk, snoozing, and eating grass.
Then when I did my piano practice in the afternoon Kaya the black cat sat by me attentively, listening. She likes Albeniz! Well, that's slow-as-a-wet-week Albeniz with a mistake every third bar...
Wednesday 20th October
I'm off do some weeding along the water race. I'm going to be brutal - self-seeders which are caught up in the weeds will be scraped out. Sorry about this, but it's just too fiddly otherwise! Rusty and I have visitors this afternoon (my friend and her dog) so I'd better get started.
Fruhlingold Rose
Later...
I loved my visitor's visit! The dogs raced around, neither was too combative, and my friend wandered around really appreciating the garden. And wonderfully she didn't cause me to 'see' any the weeds. Such a garden visitor is worth millions. Stu, my easy, friendly lamb was coming for a walk with us, but he became distracted and started nibbling some cherry blossom. So he was popped back in his paddock where he can't do much garden damage (except chew more rose leaves off Omar Khayyam, poor rose).
I finished my day by quickly and ruthlessly weeding and taking a sharp spade to the edges of the Dog-Path Garden. Alas, when I was packing up I saw tomorrow's work as plain as day - spade-digging the grass edge along the Leyland hedge. I have piles of composting greenery etc. underneath the trees, but a neater edge would enhance the whole area. Aargh! Blast. Oh well.