Yippee for greenery!
I love the foliage plants in my garden, and the thousands of different leaf shapes and colours. Yippee for greenery! Ten beautiful clumps of evergreen spiky Agapanthus lying underneath a hedge (awaiting planting) have caused this gush of green adoration.
Sunday 7th April
My latest plants have cost nothing (just petrol, a little digging labour, and a rather soiled car interior). They grow and thrive for me, whether carefully divided and planted, or squashed in a shallow hole in a great hurry (this is their most likely fate).
Agapanthus Foliage
So far I've filled the little curved garden in the far corner of the Frisbee Lawn, and now I've started planting in the Wattle Woods garden along the path behind the cottage. Unfortunately I have to stop now and clean myself up for a singing concert. This is my 'po-faced choir'. This choir is uber-serious, and I need to brush my hair (and scrub clean my fingernails).
Monday 8th April
Hee hee. I've spent most of today creating a cat lounge for Lilli-Puss in the hay barn. It's a warm, dry space - even when the sweep of the winter sun is at its lowest, the hay barn is sunny. Not that the winter sun is here, yet. I've been busy collecting pine cones from the back paddock in non-eager anticipation.
Asters and Striped Rose Grimaldi
It's properly autumn now, and many of the trees are changing colour. My coloured flax (Phormium) hybrids really come into their own from now on, brightening the garden with their colours. of course the late flowering roses are still there to be enjoyed, and my silly pumpkin vine continues to produce garish yellow flowers (too late, too late). While my tomatoes refuse to ripen properly (too slow, too slow).
Percy Cat and Yellow Wave Phormium
Tuesday 9th April
+10My animals have given me a friendly start to a rather gloomy day weather-wise. At dawn, a long conversation while cuddling young Minimus my cottage cat - THE exact conversation that we have most mornings, actually - regarding finding her in the woodshed, seeing two little grey triangles (her kitten ears) up the back behind the logs. She was starving, I brought her some raw meat, she growled her way down to the food bowl - and of course, the rest is history.
Lilli-Puss in Her Cat-Louge
Breakfast With Lilli...
Then I had breakfast with Lilli-Puss in her cat lounge in the hay barn. She sits contented and sleepy on an armchair, her tummy full of food. I just need to finish off the bookcase and maybe hang some pictures. Cat pictures, probably. It would be funny to have an old-school artificial fire, a black and white TV, and a standard lamp, too (there's no power).
Now Rusty the semi-limpy dog (he's hurt his back leg while vigorously chasing next-door's car down the drive) and I are off down the road for a short, easy walk. It's drizzly, but the weather will clear up this afternoon.
Then I will plant the remaining Agapanthus plants. Agapanthusses? So what's the plural of Agapanthus anyway? And guess what - I can get some more! Yet more greenery!
Later...
Hmm... Just as I was finishing my work behind the cottage I got rained on. When rain dribbles down silently I can keep going. But this rain started clattering noisily onto the cottage roof. I retreated, and young Minimus (my cat company) popped back into the cottage to snooze and dry off.
Sky Blue Agapanthus
Apres Gardening...
I'm dry too, I've made a hot cup of tea, and now I'm going to TV couch cycle from Paris to Roubaix. Aha! Those famous cobbles! There are no cobblestone streets or lanes in my country. I wonder if French gardeners grow Agapanthus?
Oops. I've just remembered. Agapanthus do have flowers, too, in summer. I wouldn't want the floral side of Agapanthus to feel unappreciated. They come in shades of blue, and whites, and of course I love these colours in my garden.
Later the petals fall, leaving rather sculptural green seed-heads. Even slightly sheltered by trees they don't worry about a few winter frosts, either.