Messiness and weediness...
Today I'm reclaiming the last messy, weedy path through to my Cordyline glade. Then the messiness and weediness by the Hen House will be dealt to. Moosey's Messy Country Garden will become a thing of the past...
Weeding
Tuesday 12th January
Do you know - I should wander around the garden holding the rake more. Raking is the answer - there's minimal bending, and the gum bark collected can be scooped up and piled underneath a nearby hedge. And if a path has been freshly raked it gains thousands of 'points', instantly, and makes the surrounding gardens look better groomed.
Problems with the Wisteria
One of the Wisterias on the house pergola is having problems - suddenly leaves at its extremities are going yellow and dropping dead. I can't see any physical problem, but this is bad news for mid-summer (unless it's simply lack of water). It looks for all the world like the victim of some toxic spray drift (which is impossible). Or a fungus? Aargh! I will have to do some research later this morning after swimming.
Anemanthele Grass
Actually I'd love to have a lazy day, but I can't let this year's gardening momentum drop. I remind myself of the Garden Club's imminent twilight tour and my reputation (?) as a hard-working gardener who looks after and nurtures all her borders and is renowned for her paths (makes me sound rather boring)...
My New White Seat :- The white garden seat is my late Christmas present to myself.
Right. It's now much later, and I've sorted out the Cordyline glade - now a sensible, level path goes right around it, with logs each side. I've been scraping and weeding away - pretty mundane work, but in such a lovely, leafy, secluded spot.
All the Pittosporums are taller and bushier, and other trees (Sorbus, Cornus, Kowhai, Olearia) are looking beautiful. I wonder if my new white wire seat should be popped in here, to be a romantic surprise... Would I pop in to sit on it?
- 'Finish one gardening task before starting another.'
- -Moosey Stating the Obvious.
I've chosen to finish one gardening task before starting another. What a splendidly obvious idea! This is a new experience, and I've retired for the day feeling really sensible. A solid, upright gardener with stamina and stickability - that's me - hee hee...
Again I took Minimus with me to be cat company. She is great fun, and adores scooting up and down the gum trees. Gum bark provides superb traction for cat claws. I just have to remember to bring her back with me when I finish - otherwise she stays in the garden, waiting, waiting, waiting...
Summer Flowering Hebe
Space for Shrubs
There is now space for shrubs etc. to be planted alongside the cleared circular path. I have a Viburnum tinus in mind, several Carex trifidas which are certainly tough enough (what a name!) - plus a couple of spare Phormiums still in buckets. Some scruffy go-anywhere perennials (like that yellow Paris daisy) would be perfect, and maybe some Sedums would make a nice patch of edging.
Choisya Ternata and some Hebes would also do well (but I'd have to break my New Year's Resolution and buy some in, and that would be naughty). No watering guaranteed. I need to put up a notice: 'Plants who choose (!) to live here do so entirely at their own risk. The Moosey Management accepts no responsibility for providing the necessities of life.'
I am definitely providing for my tomatoes, though. I understand that water isn't food, and the cherry tomatoes on the patio get a soaking of watery organic plant food every two days. It's scary stuff though, and irrevocably stained one of my gardening shirts...
Wednesday 13th January
Right. Today is a designated Planting Day, subtitled 'Making Do With What You've Already Got' Day. I also have other, bigger plans which require man-muscle. 'Do you want to help me today?' I breezily ask Non-Gardening Partner. The reply is honest and to the point: 'Not really.' I want to do three more things. Here they are in a list.
List
- 1. Plant the garden near the Cordyline Glade.
- No explanation required.
- 2. Tidy and complete the fence-line stone wall.
- This requires a short trip to the river, and several old railway sleepers to be dragged out of the way. NGP, that means you!
- 3. Fix up the corner of the Frisbee Lawn.
- This means planting flaxes, laying newspaper, hosing everything down, and covering with mulch.
And there's more! I think I want to reposition the new white garden seat. Oh boy - talking about this plan could take ages! But I'd like to try it behind the pond, for too many reasons to list here...
Much Later...
I only did the third thing on my list. I've been pottering around for over four hours. But I've planted three Phormiums, one Coprosma, two Grevillias, a Camellia, and four small variegated Agaves. And I've tucked the new mulch ever-so-neatly underneath the Agapanthus leaves.
Daylilies
I don't understand why it takes me so long to mulch a garden properly, but I'm very, very contended. At last I am sorting out the rough edges of the Frisbee Lawn. I haven't finished, but at least I've started...
Thursday 14th January
Same again, same list, same objectives for the gardening day. But first a swim to clear the head and get the legs working. And while I'm contemplating this, I've thought of two other tasks - I must weed underneath the rose arches, and rake the Hen House paths. Rustic rubbish will not do - even if viewed at twilight by the visiting Garden Club. Aargh! I'd forgotten about them. Will I be struck off the gardens-to-visit list for allowing so much black spot on the roses? I could do a ridiculously hard prune now, hee hee, to get the shrubs in better order...
It's Lily Time
Musical Plants
Later we may play a 'Musical Plants' game where out comes one and in its place goes another. Decorative Hebes and two ground cover red roses are coming out of the back of the Shrubbery. Paul's Scarlet Not-A-Happy-Rambler is sulking in there and has rejected its tree stump. Perhaps he'd like to try a fence-line by the Driveway. Then some Carexes can go into the gaps.
Making written gardening decisions is so easy. And I do some first-rate mental gardening while lying in bed snoozing. Even gardening-while-swimming is pretty productive. Let's hope that today, out there in the real world, I make steady progress. Otherwise there's not much point in all this thinking, is there?
Late Lunchtime...
It's far too wet and I'm far too cold, so I've come inside. The Hebes are shifted, and I've quickly weeded the garden area from where they came. And now - with a fanfare of trumpets, nothing to do with gardening - I'm about to christen my brand new sewing machine (a Christmas present). Yippee!