Seed orders are boring?
2013 Seed Catalogue
Hands up who thinks that other people's seed orders for their next spring-summer season are boring? The only interesting list is your own, right? Oh well. In the depths of my winter, suffering from three whole days of too-cold-or-wet-to-garden weather, my seed order shines like a beacon.
Ha! An alphabetical list, I think, and perhaps sorted sensibly into in a few paragraphs. No explanations or comments are required at this stage. May I present my 2013 seed order:
Annuals: Asperula (sweet blue Woodruff), Cornflower (dwarf), Dianthus Black and White Minstrels, Echium, Honeywort, Lobelia, Marigold, Nemophila (white), Nigella, Orlaya, Petunia, Sweet Pea (Almost Black), Viola (Black Velvet), Viscaria.
Perennials: Agastache Arcado Pink and Astello Indigo, Aquilegia Rose on Rose, Bishops Flower Fern Leaf.
Vegetables and Herbs: Basil, Bean French Garden Filet Dwarf, Bean Purple Pod Dwarf, Carrot Touchon, Chervil, Coriander, Mesclun Organic, Mesclun Oriental, Mesclun Winter Greens, Pea Blue Shelling (a Dutch heirloom), Snow Pea Kennedy Dwarf, Tomatillo Grande Verde, Tomato Lady Bug (a red cherry type).
Elvis!
Monday 15th July
I've not been able to do any gardening at all this past weekend. There still have been some highlights - a bitterly cold picnic at the dog park which Rusty the dog loved (well, he loved the sandwich crusts), and lots of TV couch-cycling. So I've visited the amazing Mont Saint Michel, and now I'm on my way to Tours, being flown around lots of chateaux, where gardening seems to consist of blobby green bushes on green lawns.
Elvis leaves the Building...
I performed in a singing concert on Saturday evening where I said farewell to my Elvis impersonator. This time he held it together ('it' refers to the seams in his pants and his belt) while he shamelessly smooched the old ladies in the front row. I will miss him!
Oh well. Here's my ad for the personal column:
Older-lady rock'n'roll pianist seeks mature Elvis impersonator for musical fun in the early evenings...
The weather has been rather nasty, though, so Lilli-Puss's cat lounge in the hay barn has been opened up to the ewes and lambs, and her furniture is stacked up the back. Don't know what she thinks of her change of fortunes. I thought she rather liked her armchairs...
+10Sheep are pretty silly really - they don't instinctively seek shelter. The winters here are not at all severe, it's just that we keep having more accidental early lambs. Oops. Too embarrassing...
Winter Garden Colours
So what will I do today? Perhaps some web-gardening would be nice, before I duck into the edge of town for lunch. What I should have done was go swimming, first thing.
Much Later...
Ha! What I did do was some mother-digging. I've been at son's house, helping dig a border and shift piles of horse manure onto it. I feel very virtuous.
Wednesday 17th July
I'm just checking in before going swimming, visiting a hip-replacement friend, and then some more mother-gardening. Yesterday I went hiking on Banks Peninsula with my friends and Non-Gardening Partner. He chose to come on our little farm-above-the-cliffs wander, rather than having a day of manly whooshy ski-ing!
Overlooking the Akaroa Heads
But there's still no garden news! The reason I have no Moosey garden news is that there has been no Moosey gardening. I have, however, flown over Chateau Villandry and seen the famous potager gardens. Just a quick side-trip, while couch-cycling.
Early Yellow Spring Daffodils
Lots of proper cycling enthusiasts set up their training bikes in front of the TV and actually pedal le Tour in their lounge-rooms. My style (on couch, cat on lap, crochet at hand) is less energetic, but I still get there (love that fast forward button). I am now heading for Lyons, remembering to increase three chains at each end of my rug...
Later...
I am back from another afternoon of mother-gardening. Son's back fence Pittosporums have been lovingly and properly planted, with a small brick edging wall along the front. This defines the area as a genuine, deliberate border - and the terracotta colour looks gorgeous with the evergreen greenery. I have come home with the hugest container of neighbour Larry's home-made wine. I will be giggling for weeks! I promise - no journal writing in the evenings.