Let the seed sowing commence!
All the signs are extremely auspicious this week. The stars are aligned, the tea leaves deeply symbolic, the entrails - no, never mind the entrails. Basically, I have found my permanent marker black pen. And this means? Let the seed sowing commence! Yippee!
Tuesday 6th August
It's time to get creative, in the most basic, propagatory sense. I need to organise cuttings and start sowing my seeds in the glass-house. Aha! I need seed raising mix - a great excuse to go to the big home-and-garden store. Some packs of primroses might need rescuing!
Crambe cordifolia
For northern hemisphere readers who may be confused, remember you're upside down from me. Here it's early spring. While I remember, a list of cuttings to take: lupins, penstemons, variegated scrophularia, coloured sages, crambe. I love the big perennial Crambe, but it grows in an out-of-the-way garden area. I want it to share more of its impact with me.
Dusk...
Aha! What a brilliant day! I've put new primroses (lots of them, hee hee) in the house pots, and I've replaced the sad red Cordyline in the big fat corner pot with a new fountain shaped one. I've pruned a lot more roses and cleared gum leaves off the house borders.
Pink Primroses
The Laundry path is weed-free, and I've attacked the ailing Daphne. There's a rather evil looking sulphurous yellow powder on its trunk, so I've fungus-sprayed what's left of it. I've also planted and watered several miniature roses, alongside the laundry steps. All this and weeding, too! And there is soooooo much weeding to do!
Phormium tenax :- Phormiums are New Zealand natives. The species varieties get really bulky. Much, much bulkier that Texans do!
Clutching a glass of Larry's home-made wine, it's not really safe to write for much longer. I'll get horribly sentimental and start misspelling things. Mind you, I can't be as bad as the spell-checker, which insists that my beloved Phormium tenax is a Chromium Texan. Have you ever thought of planting a Chromium Texan in your garden? They're spiky, and need a lot of room...
Seed Packets
Oops...
Oops. I didn't quite get around to the seeds.
Wednesday 7th August
Another day completely filled up with creating new plants and weeding. There's been enough growth on the lupins to take basal cuttings and thus I should get squillions more plants (as long as they take root for me). I've taken some cuttings of a fragrant red wallflower, just flowering (this may not be the optimum time).
And I've done hours and hours of weeding. Why are there so many weeds? Don't answer that! It seems rather early in the cycle of seasons to have to do so much scraping and pulling. Hours and hours of weeding (repetition for emphasis). Humph.
Red Camellia Takanini
187 Broom Seedlings!
I counted one hundred and eighty-seven little broom seedlings alone, pulled out of Middle Garden near the Golden Hop. And therein I have a slight problem. Though, with the Golden Hop, 'slight' isn't the appropriate word.
Its huge tree stump is disintegrating. Oh dear. I'm imagining an even more rampant and tenacious golden ground-cover smothering everything in the border. And the nearby lawn...
New Red Camellias
By the Koru brick courtyard the new red Camellias called 'Takanini' (a New Zealand variety) are starting to flower. Silly things - they're only just above knee-high, and look hardly strong enough to carry their flowers. Aha! They are a peony style of Camellia bloom.
All the time I've been bending and nipping and pruning and digging (and weeding - did I mention I've been weeding?) I've been thinking of my gardening web-friend Jack. For years he has inspired me with stories of his farm and garden in Tzaneen, South Africa. I've just read his latest blog, and he's selling. Eek! Moving on, to a new beginning. That's so scary! All the best, dear friend.
At some stages of life things just don't balance, and time needed for gardening doesn't fit with time needed to earn money to have a garden. If it wasn't for Non-Gardening Partner I'd pretty much be in this situation. Oh dear. Am I nice enough to NGP? Please, please, please let me be.
Thank You Minimus
+10I'd like to thank young Minimus who yet again decided to keep me company. I've been working near 'her' patch of garden. She obviously hears me discussing things with my dog, and turns up to add her ten cent's worth to the conversation. Never lonely, never lonely...
Minimus the Cat
Oops. I didn't quite get around to the seeds again. I promise I'll start them tomorrow. And, what's more, I'll put all the details in a spread-sheet, like last year. Serious, eh?
Thursday 8th August
Ha! Thirty eight pots of seeds have been lovingly sown, and lovingly labelled - some home collected, some from the seed order. Apart from the Omphalodes looking awfully like the Viscaria, all is well. Memo to self - ABSP stands for Almost Black Sweet Pea. I knew that! Now I'm off to do something that rhymes with 'seeding'. Hmm. I wonder what that could possibly be? Clue : dub-dub-dub. Think about it...