Seven little gnomes...
Little Mac the Kitten
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...
Wednesday 15th February
I'm also planting more daffodil bulbs under the trees, and a few roses out in the more open spaces, and spreading compost all over the place. I've promised to keep the Choisya and Coprosma shrubs trimmed, so the big beautiful daylilies get more summer sun. It's going to look spectacular - next year! Just a few pieces of ivy to remove, now.
Later...
Little Mac the gardening kitten and I worked for four hours without a break - no coffee, no steak and kidney pet meat, nothing. Manure, compost and mulch are now on the newly cleared garden, blubs and just one rose (possibly Iceberg) planted. I guess the only issue now (Ha! I have one gardening issue!) is how to persuade the Clematis to grow along the fence and not leap through the garden into the trees. So I use kind words, secateurs, or poison? Hmm...
The Driveway Border
Thursday 16th February
How good am I? No, no - let me answer that (the writer always gets to go first with rhetorical questions). I've done two hours gardening before breakfast (in other words, before food). And yet again I am surprised how easily and quickly a path can be cleared. The loopy path around my Cordyline Grove is cleared, as is the Grove itself, in which, I notice, several seedling Pittosporums, Pseudopanax, and Olearias are happily growing. Nice work, you natives! I've cleared the path into the grove by chopping down some excess Pittosporums, and everything else looks really nice. This is a magical place, filled with soft foliage and shelter, suitable for fairies and benevolent elves. I should advertise for some...
Pink Flower Carpet Rose
Speaking Personally...
A couple of personal items, if I may. I have finally joined a book group - the final piece in the jigsaw puzzle of retired life, hee hee. I love reading books, and I need to practice talking to real people (as opposed to the cats and the dog).
To try to make sense of Schumann's Kreisleriana, I've been listening to Horowitz. Hmm...
Off the Menu
Alas, most of these pieces are far too unbalanced, leaning to the sadly mad, for me to enjoy playing them (there's just one I like). So Kreisleriana has been taken off the piano menu, to be replaced with the Sonata in F Minor. I'm not giving up on Schumann yet, having only recently 'met' him, piano-wise.
Right. Let gardening session number two commence. I should rake the paths in the Wattle Wood for starters.. And I need to finish planting the daffodil bulbs. So many things to choose from! Expect the unexpected in this exciting thrill-a-minute gardening life...
Later...
Oh well. I ignored my plans, and made straight for the Hump where I'd been working earlier. I've finished the paths. That was so easy!
- 'Raked paths create the illusion of good garden design.'
- -Moosey Words of Wisdom.
It just takes time (rather than energy) to rake a path, and immediately the garden area looks - right? Tidy? Or, in this case, absolutely gorgeous? Raked paths create the illusion of good garden design, as do freshly-mown lawns and trimmed edges. It feels so wrong to be clean, apres-gardening, at two o'clock in the afternoon. But I've worked for five hours. I am so good. Oh yes. Silly Schumann, here I come.
Friday 17th February
Aha! Another suspiciously autumnal morning (after another winter pyjamas night). Summer must have sneaked on through when I was otherwise engaged.
Banksia lutea :- The yellow Banksia is one of the sure signs of spring in my garden.
This morning I'm off to help cut down (actually half-down) a yellow Banksia rose at my friend's suburban house. This is not a terribly suitable suburban rose, when I think of my own. Not satisfied with claiming most of my washing line it's shot up to the very top of a huge neighbouring plum tree. Beautiful soft lemon flowers in which to hang the spring washing...
Much, Much Later...
A good morning's work saw the Banksia rose down, leaving just the reddish bark trunk wound around the pergola. When I got home I decided to spend the same number of hours working in my own garden - this seemed only fair. So I spread manure and mulch and made a start on the new edge of the Frisbee Border (it's expanding just a little).
Frisbee Border's Edge
Again I had little Mac the black and white kitten and big Fluff-Fluff, supersized superfluffy cat, for company. They spent most of the afternoon lolling underneath the plants airing their tummies in the sun, in one of those 'Anything you can do I can do better' moments. Dear cats.
Moused in the Night!
+20Not so much dear Minimus, my cottage cat, though. In the deep dark hours of last night she presented me with a fat, live, wriggling mouse, which I managed to eject with the broom. I heard cat-squeaking for the next few hours - she wanted to come back in, with the mouse in her mouth, I might add. Eek! No wonder I feel a bit dozy and tired.
Seven Little Gnomes
Saturday 18th February
Aha! My seven little gnomes have arrived, and are settled in underneath their weeping cherry tree. I thought they might enjoy being in a wee semicircle (good gnome owners are so thoughtful). Right. I have another trailer full of compost to dump on the Driveway Garden and the Frisbee Border (they share the same fence-line). The Frisbee Border is expanding, too - just wish that my spade was sharper. And I've more daffodils to plant and more roses to find sunny spaces for. I'm off before I forget anything, or get side-tracked.