Good morning, good morning...
Good morning, beautiful sunshine and the warmest of winter days. Good morning to the very first yellow daffodils (Jonquils?) just starting to flower in my pots. Good morning to my cats, my dog, and my garden. I'm going to be very good to you all today.
Morning Winter Sun
But first I have a confession to make. I have accidentally thrown out my favourite 'hand cultivator', my best slim-line blue-handled hand digger, and a pair of virtually brand-new gardening gloves. So here's the plan. I go to the nearest nursery and replace these items - I will be doing penance, because the nursery prices will be expensive. This will serve me right. And so I will learn to look after my tools?
Friday 5th July, Much Later...
Well, so far so good - all my new garden tools are accounted for. And I love my new bright blue gardening gloves. They feel soft and tough, as gloves should. I'm keeping everything in a little plastic basket. Never again will I let them lie innocently in the bottom of my wheel-barrow, to get throw out with the rubbish.
Gardening Shorts in Winter!
Actually I've been sorting out the Hen House Gardens. I have planted the following:
- Two Rugosa Alba roses.
- Two clumps of miniature Agapanthus, divided into quarters.
- One tough-as-old-boots rambling rose - an unsubtle, bright Barbie pink.
I've shifted Lavenders and trimmed them, weeded, and raked gum leaves off the borders. I found some compost to shovel around the Sedums. I paid attention to little things, and dug out some sad Heuchera and Stachys for repotting.
The First Daffodil for 2013
Gorse Seedlings!
I've widened the path which leads into the purple wooden seat. There's a lot of grass growing amongst the Darmera, and tomorrow I'll do some proper weeding here. It's some years since this area had a good clean-out. I know this by the size of several gorse seedlings I've found. Seedlings? More like shrub-sized. Oops!
The sun has been shining all day and it's been warm enough for gardening shorts and a cotton shirt. An amazing day, really. Aren't I lucky? Oh yes - I never doubted that for a moment!
Saturday 6th July
My goodness, I feel so dozy! Last night it was very windy-noisy in the cottage, impossible to sleep well - even young Minimus found the sounds rather alarming. Our power went off, and lots of thankfully small tree branches came down.
Good morning to silly Lilli-Puss, who is my best cat-friend this morning. She's been 'helping' me gather pine-cones from the back paddock, while Non-Gardening Partner has checked the sheep. And, speaking of the sheep...
+5
Good morning to two unexpected early merino lambs, both thriving and enjoying the warmer weather. These are accidental lambs, a consequence of last year's ram lambs being separated out from the ewes too late. They're now in the orchard with the ram and the other three ewes, whose 'legitimate' lambs are due in seven weeks time!
Early Merino Lamb
An Ovine Oops...
A rather embarrassing ovine oops, if you like. Enough said!
Anyway, I've had a great day. I cleared more mess from the Hen House Gardens while Lilli-Puss sunned herself on the purple wooden bench. I've been very thorough, and I haven't lost any of my tools.
Divisions of Heuchera, Stachys, and Symphytum 'Hidcote pink' (which has such a pretty flower, and doesn't seem to be invasive) are all potted up. I'll replant them in a couple of months. I've trimmed the waterside Phormiums and some overgrown Hebes, and now I need to decide what to do with the grasses at the water's edge.
It's really early in the evening now, but I'm off to bed with Biggles (a book hero), and a glass of wine. I hope the wind will be gentler. Good night.
Sunday 7th July
Yippee! Good morning to my lovely person-visitor, who offered to cook gourmet pizzas for lunch. obviously this had to be a reward for good garden behaviour, so I worked really, really hard, trying to get the Dog-Path Garden cleared. I planted three Camellias (variety Takanini) near the spiral brick courtyard, cut down the large patch of dahlias, and weeded madly along the various dog-paths. Then I moved over to the Stumpy (AKA Willow Tree) Garden, weeded out Campion, picked up fallen crab apples, and dug out clover weeds.
Coral Flower Carpet Rose
Then - pizza in the sunshine! So yummy. And such a warm, sunny day for winter, great for the new lambs with their mothers in the orchard. And huge thanks to the row of silly coral Flower Carpet roses, still blooming, even though it's now two weeks past mid-winter.