Clean up those paths!
Gnome in Jandals
Aargh! The choir is coming soon! Whenever I start feeling garden-proud, and just a tiny bit complacent, busloads of older-lady garden visitors wobble into my thoughts. Eek! So which paths should I clean up today? And what about the remaining dahlias and the annual flowers, almost past their best, messing up the house garden? And the garden gnomes need a tidy up, too...
Monday 21st March
It's damp and semi-drizzly outside anyway, but that won't stop me. New rule - for every written sentence of self-panic, I do an hour of good solid path-clearing and weeding specifically for the visitors. But normal garden transmission also goes on. Should I remove the bronze Phormium completely from the corner of the house? And the remaining clumps of Agapanthus are going in the Hump, aren't they? Also I am going to clear the Hen House Gardens, including getting all the gum tree bark out of the hen's run, aren't I? Hmm... A cup of hot coffee, while I ponder these and other rhetorical questions.
Now if I was tuned into the branding of Mooseys Country Garden on Facebook (aargh!) I could make a five course meal of this - run a quick poll, then a campaign to Save the Bronze Phormium, find lots of alternative bronze Phormium sites to pop in happy links to, and... Have I got this right? Or am I being a wee bit rebellious? Me? Never... I could advertise the Choir Performance in a Country Garden as a Facebook Garden Event. Aargh! Then the offending flax stump would still be there in situ when the wandering visitors appear. The shame!
Phormiums by the Stream
By the way, I seem to have started this journal's Week Three a day early, but I reserve that right as the slightly rebellious editor, hee hee.
Later, After a Piano Playing Engagement...
Yippee! I may not have done any gardening today, but my friend Daffodil Planter has been busy in California and her yearly Daffodil Blogorama is up and running. Check it out - I've got a tiny article hidden in there somewhere. Here's to the as yet unplanted Moosey recycled daffodil bulbs in their boxes in the garage, by the way.
Annual Daisies
Tuesday 22nd March
Aargh! I have a list of serious early-morning instructions from London web-master son regarding my presence on Facebook and Twitter. They'll certainly take more time to digest than my Reshape Up For Life breakfast - a tasty free range soft-boiled egg, home-made rye bread with marmalade, rather modest portions...
Thanks to all the friends who have contributed to me (that's the Mooseys Country Garden version of me) getting my own, proper Facebook username, which webmaster now requires me to use in every sentence (just joking). I could give it a try, though - here's a test.
Moosey, Head Gardener at Mooseys Country Garden, writes:
I have very important Mooseys Country Garden work to do outside today - planting all the remaining Mooseys Country Garden Agapanthus and the Mooseys Country Garden daffodil bulbs. I've chosen the Hen House Gardens (in Mooseys Country Garden) as my clean-up area to feed the Mooseys Country Garden bonfire...
I think that's quite enough. Anyway, my first task is to remove the bronze Phormium roots left by the house, and pot up the offcuts (there will be thirty-plus) - this flax is such a beautiful colour that it needs to be recycled. It's cool, grey, and drizzly out there - just another refreshing autumn day. Back soon.
These Phormium Roots - Gone!
Grumping List
Hmm... This is me, three hours later, and I have a huge list of things to grump about. I'm wet through, with soggy socks - aargh! I'm really hungry (thanks to my Reshape Up For Life campaign). I'm hacked off with the variegated Elm tree suckers, and I seem to have been wandering around in garden circles achieving very little. I still have five Agapanthus clumps to divide and plant... Right. Enough of this twaddle - it's time to look on the bright side.
I am about to change into dry socks. Many folk don't have dry socks, but I certainly do, and I need to be thankful. Personal grumpiness about the Reshape For Life Campaign is easily fixed - snack on some fruit. And blessed is the gardener who has spare Agapanthus clumps - they grow so easily underneath pine and gum trees. Anyway, I've planted three (digging proper holes and slicing them into sensible sized pieces), I've moved some stones, closed off an unused path in Middle Garden, and dug the flax roots out of the house garden.
Pond Cottage - Where I Live!
Oh - I almost forgot. Probably the grumpiest thing is this: I've lost (mislaid) the loppers and I really, really, really want to trim the entrance to the Pond Paddock. I need more light here. On my evening journeys out to Pond Cottage (where I live at the moment) I end up ducking tree branches and crashing into the hostas - unless there is a huge, helpful moon blazing in the sky. Enough. Warm up the feet and the mind will follow.
Wednesday 23rd March
The loppers are not lost! Non-Gardening Partner, bless him, retrieved them from the wet grass and put them in the garage. Phew! So that's my first job - pruning. I might even stand on a chair and saw a large branch of the Tulip tree down. Strong-Arms-Moosey with her tiddly bow saw strikes fear into the trees of Pond Paddock.
Tiger the Cat :- Oh dear - not one of Tiger's most flattering photographs...
Yesterday Tiger the cat sat and watched me gardening by the house decking. Then she seemed to get in an outdoorsy mood, scampered over to the Liquid Amber tree, and climbed it waist-high. Oops - gravity set in, and back to ground she flopped. Tiger - I remember you zooming right up this tree in your lighter, carefree, kitten days! The responsibility of being the senior cat weighs heavily on Tiger, hee hee...
Right. Maybe another cup of coffee before I go? My antisocial (and that's a euphemism) Russian forum spammer is late this morning, but all my other webwork is up-to-date. I've already tweeted, and tried to put more photographs on Facebook. They are of Non-Gardening Partner mowing the lawns, and they all look the same - funny that! Same mower, same NGP, almost the same lawns - well, they're all green... Wouldn't want to change a thing!
Three Hours Later...
Good for me. I've even burnt all the lopped off tree branches, and I've collected four barrowfuls of gum tree mess from the Hen House Gardens to help the bonfire. And did I mention that I have perfect timing? I started my work and the drizzle ceased, I did my work, I've just come in to clean self up and relax, and its started drizzling again.
The Dahlias Are Still Flowering
And now that I've cast my critical eye over the Hen House Gardens I can see some gaps near the path which are begging for miniature agapanthuses (I think that's the correct plural). Alas - the small weeping cherry tree looks like it might weep no more, and the rugosa roses look incredibly scruffy, so some lovely green foliage low to the ground will refresh the garden. The lavenders I planted on the other side of the path are growing well, as are the Eryngium yuccifolium (am so proud that I know their name). And the leaves on the scarlet oaks are just starting to redden. But certainly the whole garden needs more green. Decision done!