Garden Journal 2012

Aha! I love a good leap year, and I have high hopes for 2012. An extra day of gardening, for one! The Moosey Journal is well and truly a teenager, having been going now for sixteen years. Same old, same old? Maybe just a little, but 'same' can be a very restful thing in the garden. Often the icing on the gardening cake is to write about my 'same old' day. Hope I wont get too boring...

New Year's Resolutions......: Yippee! 2012 is the year of the New Year's Resolution. I've got lots, which I've tried to make into a sort of sandwich. For the garden, for the piano playing, for life in general really...
Off to the Shrubbery......: I've washed my hair, and am off into the Shrubbery to see if anything vegetative has died. Not that one needs clean hair to spy a deceased plant. Some gardener (me) forgot about summer and foolishly planted roses in here, out of reach of the big irrigation.
The burning question......: Oh yes, yes, yes. With regards to that burning question, the hedge trimmings are completely finished. All gone, leaving behind a huge pointy volcano of ash, which I'll dampen down and shovel onto the garden. Finally finished!
Frightened about my climbing roses......: Ridiculous. I've been too frightened to check on the 'progress' of my archway climbing roses, just in case... Today, alert and armed, I sneaked apprehensively into the Hazelnut Orchard. What horrors and mayhem would be waiting?
A cycling man-holiday......: Hee hee. Going on a cycling man-holiday (via a library book) is terribly exciting! Early this morning (in bed in Pond Cottage) I cycled through Japan. This evening I'll be off to China. And in between I can just pop outside and do lots of good gardening.
Windy, windy, windy......: It's super-windy, but I'm going to pick up all the gum bark that's fallen from the huge Eucalyptus trees. OK, more will fall tomorrow, if the wind's still blowing. But one doesn't wait until all the weeds have popped up before weeding, does one?
The Golden Age of Semi-Madness......: Some thoughts regarding semi-madness (or eccentricity, if the 'mad' word is too much of a worry). For I consider I have arrived at the Golden Age of Semi-Madness. It is the perfect time of my life to go a little peculiar...
The Moosey Garden Trio?...: It's a chamber music morning, and we are playing two (TWO! Oh joy!) Bach Trio Sonatas. Our trio needs a name. Head Gardener, Non-Gardening Partner, Flautist Friend... Hmm... Nothing springs to mind. HGNGPFF? Nope. The Moosey Garden Trio? A bit self-centred...
A big day - garden visitors are coming! ...: A big day - garden visitors are coming! Already, before breakfast, the Shrubbery paths are cleared. And now I'm having a pile of peanut butter toast, while my big musical passion - Brahms's piano concerto (B flat major) - plays really loud. Hee hee.
Outbid in a garden gnome auction......: Ridiculous. Two days later and I'm still feeling sad having been outbid in a garden gnome auction. I've had to speak severely to self. Moosey, be thankful that losing some scruffy garden gnomes is all you've got to be sad about. Foolish oldish woman!
Where's the kitten?...: The retired older-woman's Monday is so restful. The dishes are done, Scarlatti tinkles away on the stereo, my dog is slumped in his chair snoring, the cats are lounging, all fed and relaxing - no, wait! I've shut the kitten outside by mistake. Eek!
No complaints......: Shape-Up-For-Life gardeners do NOT complain in their gardening journals about how hungry they are. They simply pat their middle bits (discretely) inside the gardening shorts (not the favourite ones, which are too tight) and sigh wistfully. And then they go gardening.
The gardening world always feels hemispherical......: The gardening world always feels hemispherical when I start planting daffodil bulbs. Gardening friends 'up there' are enjoying their first daffodils in bloom, while I've got 650 recycled bulbs still to plant. My garden will be springing some surprises in seven months time!
The Queen of Soil Restoration and Enrichment......: Ha! I am the Queen of Soil Restoration and Enrichment. Compost, rotting leaves, bags of horse manure, ash, mulch... You name it, I've got it and I'm applying it to my garden. It's time I did something nice for the soil.
A crisis of confidence......: Oh dear - how the mighty have fallen. I've had a hemi-demi-semi-crisis of confidence regarding the size of my one-woman country garden. Hmm... Could it be - perhaps, possibly, maybe - a little too big for me? Aargh!
Daffodil bulbs......: Bach chamber music... Ooh, goody! What a groovy way to start the day. And my lovely flautist has presented me with a huge bag of daffodil bulbs, too. Yippee - fat bulbs! And a bag of freshly picked plums. This busy late-summer life is good.
Seven little gnomes......: Seven little middle-aged concrete garden gnomes are coming to live underneath one of the weeping cherry trees in my Driveway Garden, in place of the rampant ivy. What a choice - ivy or gnomes. Gnomes are much more welcoming, actually...
Things that I've almost finished......: Here's something else that I've almost finished - the newly expanding Frisbee Border. My garden life is full of things that I've almost finished - but at least that means I start things, I guess. And tomorrow I will be even more 'almost finished', hee hee...
The big brown puppy is visiting......: Oh my - this is an exciting day. I can't stop to write. Escher the big brown puppy has arrived to stay for three days, and I have promised him (and Rusty the Moosey dog) exciting days of dogs-doing-things (in other words, gardening).
No time for dreaming......: Aargh! The Moosey social calendar flexes its tough, older-retired-lady muscles. Book group, some lovely garden visitors, two daytime parties... There's been no time for garden dreaming these last few days.
Genteel gardening......: Do I miss Escher the bouncing brown puppy, forever ferreting out the gross and the rotten from my garden borders? Gardening has become very genteel and fragrance-free, and nobody is eating the horse manure.
I need to reboot my March gardening plans......: I need to reboot my March gardening plans. For example, what did I do in the garden yesterday? Oops. I wonder if I should break with tradition and get some goals for March?
A non-gardening journal?...: Aargh! What am I doing, claiming to keep a gardening journal? A non-gardening journal, more like. And my first midnight March mouse in the cottage - thank you so much, young Minimus, supreme hunting cat.
Miniature Agapanthus to plant......: Aha! The power (as advised) is off again. I'm off-line, staying home with my thermos of hot coffee and my dog. I have cricket to listen to, piano pieces to play, and ten huge clumps of miniature Agapanthus to plant. I don't need power of the electrical kind to do any of the above!
I didn't buy anything at the nursery sale!...: We called in at the first of the autumn nursery plant sales, and I didn't buy anything! In the 'old days' I would have insisted we arrived with the trailer, and my wallet would have been twitching, hee hee...
Couch-hiking and couch-cycling......: Just as my gardening settles into autumn slow-down reflective mode, my couch-activities are getting wondrously exciting. Fresh from couch-hiking with Daughter of Moosey in New Zealand's mountains, I'm now couch-cycling from Paris to Nice. Early this morning, on the way to Sisteron, I saw my first spring blossom...
Feeling a bit sheepish......: Today has started oddly, reading a well-written article in Fine Gardening (the only gardening magazine I subscribe to), and feeling a bit sheepish about my gardening abilities with regards to colour. Self-doubt first thing in the morning will not do! So I am off outside to shift some dahlias...
Wet morning, cold morning......: Good morning, wet morning, cold morning, with more than a few coloured leaves fluttering down and the yellow perennial Heleniums (or are they Helianthuses?) about to flower. Eek - this is 'it'! I think proper autumn has begun.
The garden feels autumnal......: I've now definitely adopted the equinox as my personal date for the official start to autumn. The garden feels autumnal, all peaceful and serene, and red and golden leaves are starting to flutter down from the trees in the Pond Paddock.
Birthday rhododendrons and gnomes......: It's Daughter of Moosey's birthday today, and she's thousands of miles away in Nepal. I'm getting her two fat rhododendron shrubs for a present - I have the perfect semi-shaded spot on the edge of the Pond Paddock. And a second, really exciting present - six retro concrete garden gnomes!
Thinking about a garden holiday......: I was on the verandah of Pond Cottage with my early morning cuppa, looking around at the garden and thinking. A week spent just sitting in my garden reading books would be an amazing sort of holiday. When I got bored I could go for a garden walk...
The garden's mood is changing......: My goodness the garden's mood is changing, becoming very transitional and autumnal. I'm going to finish my March by doing some good, solid, thoughtful gardening, going where-ever the mood takes me.
I love my garden......: I love my garden. It's the simplest feeling, yet delightfully complicated to explain without resorting to a huge list. Try taking a swirling mixture of the following...
Off hiking in the mountains......: Today I'm off hiking in the mountains, as part of my 'Need To Get Out More' Policy. My golden garden will still be there when I get back home. The things which looked beautiful first thing in the morning will still look beautiful. And then there's tomorrow...
Easter weekend nursery sales......: Easter's full moon is just splendid, spreading silver pools of night-light all over the autumn leaves on the lawns. But what about the drool-and-salivate Easter Nursery plant sales? For the first time in years I have been conspicuously absent...
Colour echoes......: Fiery autumn leaves and late flowering golden and red roses - together they form the most perfectly timed colour echoes in my autumn garden. Naturally I planned this to happen...
Location, location, location......: Location, location, location... Lots of plants are moving around the garden, playing that fun autumn garden-party game of musical chairs (with the help of the scoopy shovel and the green wheelbarrow). This is the serious shifting season!
So what should I do first?...: I am up very, very early. So what should I do first, on this grand and long gardening day? Rake up the autumn leaves and put them into bags? Take some more photographs of autumn leaves and autumn roses?
Wonderful red and gold leaf colours......: I love being a busy autumn gardener, surrounded by wonderful red and gold leaf colours. The days are peaceful, the nights are cosy - such a well-balanced time of the year...
A wonderful hike in the Awatere Valley......: I'm back from my big hiking trip on the Awatere Tussock Track. My garden is small, mellow, and welcoming. Non-Gardening Partner is already glazing over, hearing how wonderful, amazing, grand, etc. it all was. And I haven't shown him my photographs yet...
Garden make-over time......: May, a somewhat mature autumn month, should be my busiest garden make-over time. It's still warm enough to thoughtfully sort out all my garden messes and mistakes. Wait a minute. Where are these messes? What mistakes? Oops. Inappropriate plantings, for one.
Good morning to my garden, cats, and my dog......: Good morning to my garden, my cats, and my dog, happily chewing on the remains of last night's meal. It was memorial (if industrial strength) roast lamb, in honour (dubious) of Stu Lamb, the thickest pet lamb I have ever raised. No, no! It wasn't roast Stu...
Autumn shows me its kindest, calmest face......: One really nice thing about autumn - I can see what needs doing in the garden, without feeling panicky or overwhelmed. There's not a hint of desperation, as autumn shows me its kindest, calmest face...
I simply must have some new roses......: I have a rose crisis. I keep discovering roses in online catalogues that I simply must have. I haven't been this rose-giddy for years. First it was David Austin's English roses, then I turned my attention to striped floribundas. I want them all...
Mothers' Day roses......: Yippee! Non-Gardening Partner and I are off to visit a rural rose nursery, on instructions from lovely world-wandering Daughter of Moosey. I am getting a somewhat rosy Mothers' Day present. Yippee for Mothers' Day, I say...
Music and gardening......: Playing chamber music (particularly Bach and Vivaldi) with my flautist-friend is one of my greatest loves at the moment. It's almost as inspiring as gardening. If I had to choose between the two, I'd choose both. Oh, and reading in bed...
My mad garden furniture painting mania......: My mad garden furniture painting mania continues - purple, plum-wine, fuchsia, and cool green chairs are now available to be sat on and admired. Little Mac is banned from the garden, however. I do not want a black and purple kitten!
Painting the wooden benches......: Another wooden bench has gone purple - this time a very beautiful lavender shade. It's on the edge of the Hen House Garden by the water, and will look inspired when the pale lemon Agnes rose blooms in late spring.
Regarding Non-Gardening Partner......: Sometimes I'm a bit cheeky about Non-Gardening Partner. After all, he doesn't moan to the world about my cooking, or how boring I am in the evenings, watching live stages of professional cycling tours. And he does help in the garden - honestly!
A proper gardening weekend......: Having a proper gardening weekend is a dream come true. Aha! I can wander around, do some weeding, and get my fingers dirty again. I'm back (I've got a job for ten days) and it's the first weekend of my June, one of THE winter months. Brr...
It's really snowing......: Aargh! It's really snowing. 'They' said it would, and I have to drive into the library for work. Ooooh - I hope my garden will be OK. If we get too much heavy snow the Phormiums get flattened. Evergreen shrubs and trees will lose branches... I'm sure of one thing - winter has arrived!
Snow clean-up days......: A garden clean-up doesn't all have to be done in one day. Wise advice for impatient me. The snow is slowly melting. I know this: rivers flow downhill, swallows fly south, and snow in my garden always melts.
Feeding my birds......: I'd like to thank the birds for giving me (and my house cats) such watching pleasure. They've eaten two big feed-balls in the week since the snow, plus many bowls of apple pieces. And a wonderful surprise (I am a novice bird feeder, by the way) - the little finches eat squishy bananas!
A gardener of outstanding determination?...: Ooooh, I am good. G-O-O-D. That stands for Gardener Of Outstanding... Tries to find appropriate word beginning with D, but can't quite decide what it should be. Determination? Diligence? Doggedness? Dirtiness? Devotion? Dynamism? All of the above, hee hee!
I love Twitter......: Hee hee. I love Twitter. I'm now following a Canadian 'tour operator, travel writer, and master gardener' who posts pictures of the gardens her group visits. I'm in Turkey at the moment, flickering along behind her, a shadow in the summer sun. Nice!
Random cats......: My cats are so random! They loll inside in the warm house for days, and suddenly, for no reason, they are prepared to follow me to the ends of the earth - in other words, out into the cold winter garden. And they seem to have a cat-company roster organised. I must update their Most Valuable Pet Competition points...
Making better progress than last year......: My winter garden clean-up continues. I'm sure I'm making better progress than usual this year, and I'm definitely remembering to do more of the little things. Ooooh - how sweet the optimistic anticipation of garden improvements...
Some spectacular gardening is needed......: I'm determined to end the mid-winter month of June in some style. I have a 'new' woolly apres-gardening jersey. Now some spectacular gardening is needed to precede the donning of this mohair garment, gently striped in the blues and greens of New Zealand's paua shell...
A new month - oh dear!...: Oh dear! It's the beginning of July. As usual, the new month sneaks in unannounced, then immediately demands a seriously new set of gardening goals. Except I'm supposed to be a free gardening spirit, above that sort of thing...
Four days of rain and drizzle......: My garden has been dripping wet for four days now, with rain, drizzle, and now fog. But doing some fog-gardening should be fun. I just checked - fog is deceivingly dry for a gardener. And it makes the garden borders look so mysterious. Oooo - now where does that path go?
No excuses......: Yippee! The sun is back, and my head-cold, like the weather, is much less drippy. No excuses now - better get on with my general garden clean-up. Soon it will be time to prune my three hundred plus roses. Ouch - scary thought!
Real winter mornings, frost on the lawn......: Gardenwise I'm enjoying some real winter mornings. Frost on the lawn is just a little too crunchy to ignore, and the sun is just peeping at me through the trees. Correction - it's me that is peeping at the sun... Bring on the blue skies! Gardening might have to wait a wee while.
My scattergun approach to gardening... ...: Some days my scattergun approach to gardening just will not do. Better to do one thing well - e.g. spread compost on the winter vegetable garden only. At the slightest twinge of randomness, a severe list can be used to sharpen the focus, not that lists are back in fashion in this gardening journal...
Flower colours come in tiny packages......: Getting home mid-afternoon after a day-hike in the hills is tricky - should a good keen gardener leap straight into the garden to get a couple of solid hours in before it gets dark? What about tired legs, etc.? Compromise and just wheel some bags of horse manure around?
I need some chain-sawing done - now!...: Weekends and Non-Gardening Partner! I put on my sweetest voice (the molasses and honey one, topped with real Canadian maple syrup). When would NGP like to chain-saw down the fallen pine tree in the Wilderness? Suddenly he urgently needs to paint the spare room. Hmm...
Blue skies and winter morning sun......: Blue skies and winter morning sun are so deceptive some days. I've been outside trimming more tree branches, my trusty dog and Little Mac the black and white kitten by my side. Brr... Cold, cold fingers. But I am not a winter wimp, so I've checked the thermometer. Five degrees Celsius! Aargh!
New trilliums!...: Exciting horticultural (and gastronomical) news. My plant breeder friend around the corner has given me two huge pots of Trilliums in exchange for a hot, hand-delivered roast pork meal. This seems a very fair trade to me! And he breeds double whites. Oooh - goodie!
What to do when it's raining?...: Blast! What a way to start my August. Chamber music is postponed, and I've promised myself that I'll do some serious housework all morning if it's still raining. And guess what it's doing? Argh! I am now imagining a parallel 'garden transformed into housework' journal...
New red rhododendrons are flowering......: There are warm colours in my winter garden! Two red rhododendrons are already flowering, new to me in the blooming sense. I shifted them last year into the gardens around the Pond Paddock. And the first of the tiny spring crocuses, golden yellow...
My flower and vegetable seeds have arrived......: Yippee! My new spring seeds have arrived, ordered from my real, glossy-papered catalogue. I have lots and lots of lovely flowers and organic heirloom vegetables. This is so exciting! Imagine if every single one germinates and grows. Aargh! All those squillions of lettuces...
Two gardening dog companions!...: In theory I've had two gardening-dog companions these last few days. I've been weeding along the water race, and Escher the big brown dog-puppy has splendid fun leaping in and out and sploshing up and down in the water. Rusty, on the other hand, is an old-man dog. He slumps on the grass nearby and sighs...
I love writing lists......: If I was going to write a gardening list, here are some of the things I'd put on it today. Sow more seeds. Take basal cuttings of sprouting lupins. Spread woodchips over remaining paths... No mention, as yet, of weeding. This list is good!
Issues with spring weeding......: Aargh! An exclamation that covers two things - a whole day of tedious, nit-picky weeding in my weedy spring garden, and then - oh so nearly leaving my camera outside for the evening. Phew! Miraculously I've never yet done that...
In a bit of a gardening grump......: Humph. You don't want to know. Oh alright. It's a very pianissimo 'humph', anyway. My gardening afternoon has been as follows: shovel a barrowful of woodchips. Wheel them to a path. Scoop up all nearby firewood logs. Wheel these to the firewood stack. Return to the trailer, shovel a barrowful...
Don't drink the daffodil water!...: I must be the silliest intelligent gardener on the planet. I know which plants are poisonous in my garden. But this morning in the cottage, too lazy to wander over to the house, I used water out of the daffodil vase to make an early cup of tea. Hmm...
Making groovy spring connections......: I've started off September (my spring month) scrambling around the garden making groovy connections with spring things. I've said hello to the daffodils and smiled at every blossom tree. Just now I heard myself shouting 'You're beautiful!' to an unsuspecting white flowering Camellia. Poor thing!
Real gardening versus web-gardening......: Aha! Action! Swimming first, then lots of outdoor gardening interspersed with indoor web-work. There's a website garden make-over going on, and I am required to do my bit. I don't rewrite anything (older material can't be compromised, no matter how daft I sound). And overall - well, it's just like looking after a real garden.
More trees are in blossom......: Aargh! I've been stuck inside doing web-gardening, and it's a beautiful spring morning. Aargh! So many things to do, so many different gardening planes, so to speak. The hot dry winds are still blowing, so I'm off to put on the hoses again. And then - well, I'll just forget all about 'html's...
Happy birthday to meeeeee......: Happy birthday to meeeeeeee. All I'm hoping for is another productive (and groovy) day in my beautiful spring garden (wind - please don't blow the blossom down yet). There are lots of daffodils flowering now, plus the first of the little blue Muscari and a few stray weakling tulips...
No more gnomes!...: I am so proud of myself. Last night I said 'no' to acquiring (a euphemism for purchasing) three concrete garden gnomes - a fisherman, a guitarist, and a pipe smoker. They would only have been duplicates). This morning I am feeling slightly guilty. Hopeless! It's OK to say no! Tough gnome love...
Time to write a giggly list......: Brr... It's a bit cold this morning. I may not start my gardening just yet - time to reflect in the indoor warmth, write a giggly list, self-congratulate self (might that be a pleonasm?), and think about shifting one more rose out of the Shrubbery...
I'd love to build a herb spiral......: Something terribly exciting has happened. I've seen something in a community garden that I'd really, really like to replicate in my garden. It's a herb spiral made with bricks...
Something suitably contrapuntal?...: Gardening calls - but what do I feel like doing? I've just spent the morning playing Bach Trio Sonatas, so I need something suitably contrapuntal. Prick out the purple cornflower seedlings? Too homophonic? They do, after all, look completely same at this tender stage of their lives...
The website make-over continues......: Oh dear. I have so much real gardening to do, but the website make-over continues at full speed. Having a live-in webmaster is intense. One day I am pinned down at the breakfast table, so to speak, to hear his latest web-idea. The next I am dug out of my latest hiding place in the garden for yet another Moosey business meeting. Aargh!
Flittering like a Fantail......: I've spent the whole day flittering from thought to thought like a squeaking fantail in the Pittosporums. so many beautiful and sentimental distractions, all thoroughly enjoyable - and a great day for photographs, too...
Weeding? Weeding? Or weeding?...: Ooooh - It's a gorgeous, gorgeous spring day. So many things to do, so difficult to put them in order... What to do first? Weeding? Weeding? Or weeding? Aagh! No time to lose. I'm off outside, and I'm going to start at the start - with weeding.
Gloves on, gloves off......: It's a weekend with lots of handling - tasks like weeding, and carting and stacking used bricks are definitely 'gloves on'. Then I'm helping with the sheep shearing - definitely 'gloves off' I love the feel of that lanolin...
Multiple gardening clones of me......: OK. How many of me are available for garden work today? I urgently need multiple gardening clones. Firstly - a Pot-Titivater. My new red tulips are embarrassingly messy in their pots and need a stern talking-to, before being popped in some faraway corner of the garden.
Home Alone......: Yippee! Today I'm going hiking - all day, up the Rakaia Gorge with my oldest and dearest friend. So I'm leaving my garden 'home alone' for one whole day. Oooh - I hope all my plants behave while I'm gone. I don't expect anything untoward - I run a well-disciplined establishment here at Mooseys.
A Free-Spirited Matron of Nature?...: As a free-spirited child of nature (though 'matron of nature' might be more accurate) I dislike knowing exactly how every hour of my weekend will be filled. I'd much rather flit around the garden bestowing my skill and charm on whatever takes my fancy. And what doesn't take my fancy is bricklaying...
A Warm Gardener's Welcome to October...: Aha! Good morning, and a warm gardener's welcome to October, a month where my garden zooms off with me tagging along after it, usually at least one and a half steps behind.
The Moosey Gardening and Bricklaying Journal......: The Moosey Gardening and Bricklaying Journal for October continues on its merry way. Today I'm doing circuit gardening. First I get a barrowful of bricks cleaned and ready for the vegetable garden's walls...
One of Those Mornings......: It's been one of those mornings. A cat-jumping competition, just before dawn, with Percy and Minimus leaping up on the cottage window-sill, off onto the floor, back onto the sill, and out onto the verandah...
Brick-Laying for Beginners?...: Hello, and welcome to another episode of brick-laying for beginners. Today, while my beautiful spring garden bursts forth with more beautiful flowers and foliage - guess what I'll be doing? Ha! What a daft time of year to get a brick-laying mania!
Spring Madness......: The Pond Paddock spring blossom trees get more and more fluffy, Choisya shrubs and rhododendrons are flowering, more of my new tulips are open, and the house lawns are the most amazing shade of green. And I'm showing definite signs of spring madness...
More to Life than Bricks?...: More of my beautiful bricks are flowering, while I'm busy laying rhododendrons in the vegetable garden? Aargh! Even my thoughts are back-to-front today. There must be more to gardening life than bricks. OK, so I have two brick projects to finish in the next five days. Hopefully after this weekend the B-word will no longer feature...
The Mulch Monster......: Minimus (my cottage cat) always starts her day fighting the mulch monster. This monster, whose existence I don't doubt for a minute, hides in the mulched path by Pond Cottage. Each morning Minimus leaps and twirls upon it, tail flicking wildly...
Planting......: Planting needs to get the gardening nod from me - vegetables, new shrubs, flowering annuals... The focus is planting. And watering, and weeding, and trimming the lawn edges... Hey! My planting theme has already been taken over. That was quick...
Days of Bricks and Roses......: There's a delightful balance between bricks and roses in my garden. My need for bricks is diminishing - the herb spiral is nearly finished. And for every brick I lay on the walls of the spiral another rose starts flowering. Yippee! The days of bricks and rooooooses...
Sharing My Garden With Cats......: I sleep in my garden (well, almost). I have breakfast and lunch in my garden. I spend all day in my garden (unless the weather is atrocious). Am I lucky? Oh yes, every minute of every day. And I share all of this with six wonderful cats. Oops - seven...
A Balanced Gardening Mind?...: The month of November requires a balanced gardening mind. While there's work to be done, so many beautiful things (new each day) require enjoying and reflecting on. It's my 'Take the time to sit down and smell the roses' month - if there's a rose near the seat of the day!
The Brick Herb Spiral is Finished!...: I am a legend. Oh yes. Clever me. Clever, clever me. The brick herb spiral, my most out-of-comfort-zone garden project ever, is finished, and fully functional. It is a strong, thoughtful, clockwise spiral. Trailing Rosemaries and Nasturtiums spill down from the very top...
Going to the Dogs?...: For the next two days I am gardening with dogs. Big brown Escher is staying, and so these are compulsory dog-socialisation days for Rusty, the resident Moosey dog. We've already been busy in the garden - weeding, trimming, planting flowering annuals, spreading organic matter...
Colours and Cameras......: Sitting in the cottage with the puffy heater pushing warm air onto my camera. Oops. Oops. Oops. For two days and two nights it has been hanging outside on the apricot flowering Crepuscule rose. Alas, not Crepuscule-Cam, just an absent-minded gardener...
My Glasshouse Needs Me......: Aargh! My glasshouse needs me. My garden needs three times as many flowering annuals as I'm growing. Three times as many gaps in the borders? Or perhaps my expectations are tripling each year? Whichever it is, the mathematics is of some concern.
Me and Minimus....: Forget summer, momentarily - it's raining, it's a cold morning, and I'm snug in my green old-school dressing gown in the cottage armchair. Minimus (my cottage cat) wants us to go into the garden, but I'm not motivated to venture out just yet. Not quite yet...
Signs of Nearly-Summer....: My garden is showing signs of nearly-summer: semi-spectacular sights (roses flowering in trees), functional things (the barbecue back on the patio), and the commonplace (the foxgloves are flowering)...
Grasshopper Gardening?...: Aha! I've spent the last couple of days grasshopper-gardening, my long, not-so bendy legs leaping from this to that, gleefully ever on the move. An interesting thought - my goodness, I wish I had grasshopper-knees...
Forget-Me-Nots....: Aha! Prepare for some serious alliteration - it's time for a fond farewell to my fluffy forget-me-nots, their flirtation with flowering finally finished. It delights me just how many of these pretty little annuals grow in my garden...
Regarding Eyewear......: Calling all entrepreneurs out there - eyewear designed especially for gardeners is needed. Tired gardening eyes play the most callous tricks. Take, for example, a typical day-long clean-up session, where tiny, no-problem weeds are observed and dealt to in the morning.
Getting Somewhere?...: It's the last week in November, and I think I'm really getting somewhere! I can feel it in my gardening bones. I've been working so very hard, multi-tasking, remembering not to forget anything (?), so no part of my garden can possibly feel neglected or unloved.
Goodbye, November. ...: Goodbye, November. Fresh from weeks of pulling out old forget-me-nots and getting myself covered with the sticky seeds, I can proudly make one of my first Moosey Endorsements. Yippee for my blue striped charity-shop cotton man's gardening shirt...
Miss December? ...: Here I am, Miss December, your Gardener of the Month. Nothing glamorous or remotely saucy, I'm afraid. I'll be appropriately dressed (in blue gardening shirt and long denim shorts) for some good garden maintenance. Though as a summer month December could well hot it up a bit!
Watery Thoughts......: Aha! I'm sitting on the pond decking, immersed in watery thoughts. My pond is like a giant outdoor bath, with a slowly dripping tap and no plug (water trickles in from an intake pipe, and then recharges the aquifers below). More romantically, it is a deeply peaceful garden haven...
Yellow......: My garden has gone completely yellow! Oddly, in the summer sunshine I seem to have misplaced my Moosey Garden Voice, hopefully just temporarily. It's too hot to write? Or have I finally said everything there is to be said? Perish the thought!
Low-Key Christmas Gardening......: It's nearly Christmas, and I've been neglecting the garden. No, that's not strictly true - I've been pottering quietly around it. Low-key gardening, I'd call it. The 2013 Moosey Calendars featuring the garden, cats, and dog are done. Phew - the world is not going to end after all...
Non-Gardening Nostalgia......: OK. Time for a bit of non-gardening nostalgia. I appear to be suffering from some form of mathematical dementia. Non-Gardening Partner has just told me there are heaps of series expansions for the number pi. I don't remember ever having seen one. Oh boy. I should stick to gardening...
Seriously......: My last gardening days of 2012 must be taken really seriously. After several trips into the mountains it's time I settled back into serious gardening mode. The hot winds are blowing, the garden need watering, the edges need trimming, the borders need weeding...

Garden Journal 2013 Top Garden Journal 2011

Tweets by @mooseysgarden

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