My garden is too big?
I woke up this morning feeling a little alarmed that the Moosey Garden was too big for one woman. Eek! But don't worry - this is garden guilt, impure and complicated. And it's summer holiday time - jigsaws, books, piano playing, humans in the house to spend time with...
Thursday 6th January
In the garden all the weeds are asserting themselves, and the lawns need mowing (hee hee - I can blame someone else). There are garden areas I haven't walked through for three weeks, and I feel guilty when I remember them. Hope everything is still alive right up the back of the pond, for example.
My New Bird Bath
So today after swimming I'm going to walk on every single path through the entire garden, carrying a notebook and pencil. There may be some stern words written down...
Much, Much Later...
I would like to make the following official comment, after cleaning up a huge area of garden. I've trimmed foliage overhanging paths, weeded, and picked up branches of gum trees. After three hours I am still happy. And so I conclude that my garden is certainly not too big - in fact, it is just right.
Wedding Day Rose
I found a wee problem with Henworld, a round garden near the vacant hen house which has statues of hens perched on brick towers. It looks as if some hen-hater has charged through it swinging a hammer and knocking everything over (I've heard of people doing this to garden gnomes). But there is one sadly simple explanation.
- 'Porcelain hens don't bounce.'
- -Moosey Words of Wisdom.
When the tree men were here they did some work felling a huge nearby gum tree. And I told them (generously) I didn't mind any damage to the Hen House Gardens underneath - the shrubs were tough and would easily bounce back. I forgot about the hens. Porcelain hens don't bounce. Oops.
Henworld :- Henworld is a silly, whimsical area of garden near to my actual hen house.
Non-Gardening Partner suggests a natural alternative - the big nor-west gales, combined with some of the bigger recent aftershocks, are to blame. A crazed hen-hunter would never make it to the Hen House Gardens anyway - they'd have to wiggle through the gardens by Pond Cottage, find Rooster Bridge, and then negotiate a network of curvy paths - without tripping over the Renga Renga.
Friday 7th January
Good morning, garden. And good morning to Histeria the tabby (squashed into the smallest cat basket) and big Fluff-Fluff (who is surely getting bigger) in his cane basket with the blue striped handle. Good morning to the Moosey weeds out there that I'm sure are equally relaxed. But beware - something very unpleasant is about to happen to you...
My Last Pink Lupin
Lupin Search
Today is going to be a fun, random day. As well as dealing to weeds and buying replacement porcelain hens we are off on a lupin-flowering search. A film company in Auckland requires some flowering Russell lupins and has naturally asked for Moosey help. It's late for these perennials to be in flower, but inland in the mountain valleys there are huge swathes of them, with semi-pest status.
Non-Gardening Partner and I are off to Arthur's Pass (with the shovel and the camera) to do a 'reccy'. And I haven't even mentioned the cricket test match (New Zealand playing Pakistan) which starts today, a solemn summer holiday occasion...
Progress Report on Pond Cottage's Bed
Two days ago I was embarrassed by the lack of beds for Pond Cottage (of course I could flash my Visa and have one delivered, but there's no fun in that). Today I have the choice of three, thanks to friends (via a swarm of New Year's Resolutions) upgrading to slat beds. A slat-bed cult is sneakily claiming new converts? Or is it too hard to get to sleep (too many Christmas mince pies and puddings) so blame the bed? Hee hee.
I know one thing - the patchwork duvet which I am sewing for Pond Cottage's new bed, whichever bed it be, is queen-size.
Much Later... Lupin Report
We are just back from our car trip to Arthur's Pass. No lupins are flowering now. All lupins have gone to seed. We tried, we did our best, but we failed.