Rain, rain, rain...
Aha! Rain, rain, rain... and packing, packing, packing for the short holiday. The funniest thing is to fly out of a cold week in winter and not worry about taking any warm socks, or puffy down jackets.
Tuesday 15th June
Temperate New Zealand gardeners know where their sun rises, and sets, and what length of day they'll get throughout the different months. But an instant change (well, after a 12 hours plus flight) is always just a bit of a wonder. Wearing shorts and floaty white cotton shirts, seeing flowers blooming - roses, daylilies... Yippee!
Mulching With Leaves
More Mulching...
Today it's just a bit waterlogged for gardening, and burning could be difficult. Some weeping Silver pear trees are arriving tonight, destined for my Cat Memorial Row in the orchard. But I won't get them planted before I go. I have more mulching to do behind the pond. But I might not get that done either before I go.
It's so easy to develop new areas with a no digging, no-chemical weed-killers approach, but truckloads of covering material will eventually be needed - newspaper to suppress the weeds, mulch to hold down the paper, etc. One just does a little each day, or each week, whatever fits.
Stick to the Plan
But - most importantly - one sticks to the original time-efficient plan, taking no short-cuts, or long-cuts either! Having decided to smother the weeds, sometimes I feel lazy-guilty and scratch around hand weeding for hours. Silly me, waste of energy.
A Bit Later...
These too-wet days when all the Head Gardener does is play the piano are boring for Rusty the dog. But we've been for two walks down to the hay-barn - the grass is super-squelchy underfoot, and everything looks so cold and damp.
Rusty Watching Some Birds
We've also been over to the pond to leap into the water (the dog, not me). It's never too wet for Rusty.
Thursday 17th June - Goodbyeeeeee!
Goodbye! We are off on our holiday. Goodbye to all the cats, and the garden - I'll see you all in a few week's time. Grow well, take care, and please don't do anything disgraceful in the house (that's for the cats).