Hard-Working Gardening Verbs
Journal writing first thing in the morning should be eyes-wide-open and energetic, with colourful, imaginative phrases leaping off the page. At the end of the day it's just a succession of hard-working gardening verbs, with a gush about how tired and happy I am. Yawn! Must start earlier, must start earlier...
Monday 7th October
Aha! The hoses are on and it's not yet 8am. It's a blustery morning, and there's blossom on the big cherry trees in the Pond Paddock. Please don't blow away! More yellow things are in flower - the Genista shrubs at the back of the Shrubbery, the double Kerria (which hasn't suckered into the ram paddock yet), and Saffron Queen, a survivor rhododendron.
Saffron Queen Rhododendron
And more whites, too - a warm welcome to the Choisya (Mexican Orange Blossom) with its creamy-white flowers, and the pinky-white Crab-Apple in blossom by the house.
Choisya Flowering in the Island Bed
Hmm... I've just written a list of plant nouns with lots of 'and's. Better go outside to get properly creative.
Much Later...
This is too scary! I've finished my work and it's been drizzling for at least an hour. And my camera is - where, exactly? I remember taking photographs of those blossom trees this morning. Aargh! No hard-working verbs until I find it. I can, however, think of some appropriate adjectives...
The New Patio Garden
So I roared around and around the garden getting wetter and wetter, trying to visualise myself hanging the camera on a tree, or balancing it on top of something organic. It was finally found, under cover on the back porch, in a tray of hand tools. Hmm...
Phew!
Now, feeling confident and much relieved, I can report on my gardening day. I am not hopeless! But there will be verbs, I'm afraid. here goes.
I've weeded the new patio garden. I've been stacking firewood and totally clearing the last part of the Agapanthus Garden. I've been burning - the bonfire has been working well. I've shifted the hoses, and watered the newly planted roses. I've spread more horse manure, and collected more pine cones.
Where the Agapanthus Garden Was
And I've taken yet more photographs. Spring is so lovely, and I mustn't miss anything. Keeping a photographic record is good self-discipline.
Striped Tulip
Tulip Troubles...
Tulips - bah! Best not to talk about last year's bulbs, which have been ill-disciplined, floppy, and hopeless. In my garden they seem to be one-season wonders. New bulbs I bought earlier this year, planted in the new little patio garden, are behaving beautifully.
Something does puzzle me. Is it possible that tulips can totally change their colours from year to year? For example, I'm absolutely certain that earlier this year I filled a particular pot with the same scarlet reds. But no! I have one magenta, one orange, one red, and a white.
In fact all my pots contain an assortment of colours. And I honestly don't remember ever having any white ones. Hmm... This sounds very like a poor workman/workwoman blaming his or her tools.
Tuesday 8th October
Nice - it's a proper raining day, not too cold for spring, with no wind. So this is perfect for the following:
- My newly planted recycled roses.
- My seedlings hardening off outside the glasshouse.
- My 2000 piece jigsaw, in which I need a breakthrough.
It's also nice to have a genuine day off, reflect on the garden's current beauties, look through my latest photographs, peep at the tulips in the new little patio garden, and so on.
+5Ginger Percy is my best friend this morning, squeaking at me and climbing over the computer, overflowing with cat-importance. A hunting success, maybe? Last night he sat underneath the Olearia hedge in the rain and stared at the vegetable garden. It rained and rained, and he just kept staring...
A small comment on my jigsaw. Sitting and staring at it for five minutes, and then putting in just one piece is NOT what I expect of myself. So that's 1250 minus 1 equals 1249 pieces to go...
Histeria the Tabby Cat
Wednesday 9th October
Again it's been raining all day, so I've been a non-gardener. Rusty and I have been for a short wet walk down the road, and I've noticed yet more blossom. The big pink cherry trees are now flowering, including the vase shaped Kanzan in the Island Bed. And the Choisya shrubs are beautiful. Where's my camera? Hopefully not outside in the rain...
The jigsaw is making progress, and I've bought myself the silliest thing from the Charity Shop. It's a set of old-school fish-serving crockery, consisting of one large fishy platter, eight fishy plates, and a fishy 'gravy boat'. I am oddly excited about this - I never thought to own a fishy dinner set...
Thursday 10th October
How nice! A gentle day in the garden doing weeds and seeds, and planting out Verbascums and cornflowers in the Cottage Garden. I've also been taking more photographs and lamenting the loss of the Stumpy (AKA Willow Tree) Garden's big apricot rhododendron, taken out by one of the fallen trees. Lucky for me another big rhododendron casualty, lilac in colour, has actually 'layered' itself. So there's a new, smaller shrub flowering some metres away from the broken stump of the original.
Fluff-Fluff the Cat
+5
+5
+5Minimus, big Fluff-Fluff, and Histeria have been following me around, maybe curious, more likely hungry. Maybe, like me, they feel a bit housebound after a couple of rainy days. They are not so welcome in the glass-house, though. There are huge stomping paw prints all over the petunia seedlings. Poor, tiny, defenceless things!
And back to those verbs - this week there's been rather a lot of weeding and seeding, stacking and hacking, trimming and limbing, clawing and jigsawing...