50 ways to do your gardening...
First Late-Winter Bonfire
The beginning of a new gardening month is always exciting. So what's the plan, Stan? Clear a new bed, Ted? Cut down a tree, Lee? Plant a Camellia, Delia? Aha! There must be fifty ways to do your gardening...
Thursday 1st August
I've decided to designate August as late winter, and that's even more exciting. Late winter is almost early spring, hee hee... So today is a beautiful late winter's day, and I'm about to go gardening. The plan is to clean up the interior of the Jelly Bean Border, prune all the Hydrangeas, and pick up all the fallen Cordyline leaves, and so on. Clean up the mess, Tess...
And possibly dig out some of the Alkanet which runs riot in here. Then again, those little blue forget-me-not flowers will look quite pretty, quite soon. Wait until flowering has finished? But then I'll forget about them, hee hee...
Daphne Flowering
Much, Much Later...
Working near the house I can now smell the flowering Daphne. Such a wonderful fragrance, charming my nose and reminding me to start hanging my laundry outside again (mundane, I know, but the Daphne grows by my washing line).
August in the garden has started so well. I worked for two hours clearing, just like I said I would. Then I came inside to have a break and read my book. A tiny wave of guilt washed over me - surely I should finish my day properly, by burning the rubbish? After all I am a proper gardener these days, not a flighty, dizzy blonde one. So I did, and what's more, I burnt all the rose prunings from two days ago. Soooooo good!
Friday 2nd August
First of all I'm finishing the clean-up of the Jelly Bean Border. Here are some details:
- The self-sown Ligularias can go.
- Alas, the prostrate Ceanothus has finally succumbed to a rather slow death. Out it comes.
- There's room here to plant the last white rugosa rose.
It's high time the interior of this border was properly cleaned up. New rule - no Iris foetida seedlings allowed!
Spiky Red Camellia
+5
+5It's fairly grey-gloomy outside, but not too cold. Rusty the dog, who considers himself desperately underfed, is groaning at me. We are off to feed the lovely Lilli-Puss in the hay barn, and I'll take a dog biscuit in my pocket so he doesn't get too jealous.
Baby Pink Camellias
My plan is to have the best and longest of best long gardening days ever, and then to get outrageously giggly and drunk on Larry's home-made wine. It's a new batch, and hopefully doesn't taste of sticking plaster from a first aid kit - the last one did! Very odd...
Late Lunchtime...
Excellent progress has been made. I've worked through the interior of the border (such a lot of debris to rake up), and trimmed the huge Lemonwood Pittosporum which was hanging badly over the path. The smell of the Daphne wafting down was just gorgeous, until it was replaced by smoke - my bonfire had self-ignited. So I seized the moment, took the hint, and pruned the big Ballerina roses in the small pond border. Humph. I never, ever want to prune a Ballerina again!
Creamy-White Camellia
Now I'm taking my dog for a walk, and then I'll do another couple of hours work.
Dusk...
The bonfire has been going all afternoon, as I've thrown more and more dry rubbish on it. I've cleaned up the pond Phormium and the Gunnera, and raked up lots of mess. I dug out two large coarse Carexes from underneath the Cabbage tree - two more to go, and then this area will be tidier. I've got quite a few rooted pieces of Viburnum tinus and Choisya ternata - they are in water, and tomorrow I'll pot them up.
My plantsman friend has just presented me with a new Camellia - it's lightly fragrant and is called 'Weeping Maiden'. This seems a brilliant trade for tonight's slow-cook beef with jacket potato and peas. Mind you, I do deliver to his gate...
Saturday 3rd August
An update on the latest huge container of Larry's home-made wine: it gets five stars! Last night I staggered off to bed as 'happy as Larry', shall we say! I avoided falling into the garden by a whisker, read a chapter of my latest Enid Blyton book (the Rubadub Mystery), remembered how jolly exciting packing to go on holiday can be, giggled, and fell happily asleep.
I Love the Camellias
I love the Camellias, and many more are flowering now. I'm keeping a bud-burst watch on others, and making sure my camera keeps busy. Flower colour at this time of the year is so exciting. The shrub with little red anemone-like flowers behind the garage is blooming well. I wonder - just a tiny wonder - if it could be the variety 'Tinsie'? This is popular and commonly available in New Zealand. I'll leave that small thought with a rather large disclaimer...
Maybe Tinsie Camellia Flowers
Did I know that Camellia flowers come in six different basic forms? Well, now I do - anemone, formal double, rose form, peony form, semi-double, and single. Except that my spiky red one in the Wattle Woods doesn't fit any of them. Oh well. A seventh flower variety called 'punk'?
Weeping Maiden Camellia
So what's today's plan? Hang up a new bird feeder (my friend calls them 'bird-bombs') and then go and plant that rugosa rose. Maybe continue the planting theme - I've got two buckets full of Amaryllis (I think) and two larger buckets full of species Agapanthus pieces. And I need to find places for just a few recycled roses.
Later...
The Agapanthus are planted in the corner of the Frisbee Lawn. Sedums are planted in the garden by Rusty's dog kennel, and little blue irises have gone along the edge of the Stables Garden. It's been quite chilly outside, and Lilli-Puss has been keeping me company. No matter which area of the garden I'm working, there's usually a cat nearby. Lilli is rather cautious, though, just in case big Fluff-Fluff should amble over.
And here are two thoughts to end the day. Plant the new Camellia (Weeping Maiden) with the other Camellias in the Wattle Woods? Or behind the garage with Plantation Pink, Jury's Yellow, an unknown red japonica, and the sasanqua which is possibly Minsie? No, no! Tinsie! That's Larry's home-made wine speaking...