A bit potty...
Green Bamboo in a Blue Pot
I'm extremely excited. Pots! Today after chamber music I'm buying some new big pots for my garden. I've even thought up a colour code, hee hee. Terracottas, bloody reds, burnt oranges for the house patio (the sunny side). Blues for the house decking (the cooler side). Green for the cottage. And if I like anything else I just buy it, hee hee.
Another rule : all Phormiums must have big pots in which to stretch and grow, and keep cooler in mid-summer. Now I have to add up the number of new pots I need. At least eight! Ooh goodie...
Tuesday 22nd July
It's lunchtime. I tried to use my list. I tried to think about colour combinations. I tried to imagine clusters of pots which belonged together. But it didn't work. So I bought randomly - two huge striped brown tea-pots (oops - sorry about that), a blood-curdling red, a couple of boring-browns, an avocado green, and a smaller brown pot which looks like it's been splattered with carrot vomit. Oops again. The teapots are still sitting in my car, seat-belts snug in place.
Best be off outside, I think. Possibly the two Beschorneria yuccoides would prefer huge teapots than an old tin bath? Aargh! Too many choices...
Later...
OK, so I thought it was easy repotting Astelias, did I? Hmm... First I tried with a hand-digger, then a kitchen knife, and then a hammer and long screwdriver. I shook and jiggled and pulled. I stomped and wrestled. Neither of the two green pot-bound Astelias would budge.
Green Astelia
Ungrateful Plant!
So I broke one of the pots with a hammer and relocated the other on the decking. It can jolly well stay in its blue pot forever, see if I care! I think I was a bit cross. Ungrateful plant!
Blast! The Aeonium looked awful in its designated blood-red pot, so I had to reuse one of my bigger terracottas. By now I wasn't feeling very confident at all. The Astelia whose pot I hammered went in the blood-red instead. Now I suppose the collection of fresh pots in the patio corner is quite pleasing, but I'm exhausted. And I have two huge brown teapots to find garden places for. Oops.
They're Only Pots!
Photographs to come, I guess, when I get my confidence back. But hang on! They're only pots, fifty percent reduction in price, and my garden is big enough to completely swallow them all. Thought - maybe one of the giant brown teapots could go in the Shrubbery by the path? I do so love the green feeling in there.
Wednesday 23rd July
Firstly - I've peeped at the house-corner pots with fresh morning eyes. They look better now. In fact, I am almost pleased. I just have to pop the emerging tulip bulbs into a terracotta pot. No plastic allowed, you see...
New Patio Corner Pots
Non-Gardening Pensioner...
Secondly - Non-Gardening Partner has transformed overnight into Non-Gardening Pensioner. His new senior status brings not only some money from the Government but a whole new attitude. I told him about my unsuccessful wrestle with that lumpy pot-bound Astelia. He's crystal clear - there's absolutely no way HE would ever have to break a pot to get a plant out.
Aha! Got 'im! I am guaranteed some man-muscle (you said! you said!) this coming weekend.
Blues and Greens
Back to these pots. Today's plan is to buy the big blues and greens (for the decking Astelias and the variegated Cordylines) and try out garden locations for the big tea-pots. And what about a load of pot and tub mix?
Aargh! The responsible me-clone has just remembered a trailer full of compost to spread. So what's it to be - shovel or spend? The solution is easy - Daughter of Moosey is borrowing my car for the morning. Blast!
Much, Much Later...
I'm back with another car full of huge pots. I've spread six compost loads in the driveway all around the Wedding Day rose. For just a minute I was going to cut it completely down.
Wedding Day Rose :- Wedding Day is a thorny once-flowering rose which can be rather a nuisance. Ouch!
A compromise (or a reprieve) - I tried to cut as many dead canes down as I could see. Naturally it grows up to the sky through the neighbouring trees, and I never ever see the flowers anymore. I still may return with the big nippers - we'll see.
I pruned all the roses in the Stables Garden (hopefully not treading on too many irises), collected barrowfuls of gum tree rubbish, and sent the biggest bonfire up in flames and smoke. And I took some photographs of the latest Camellias to flower.
Just Flowering - Ivors Pink Camellia
Hee hee. My latest carful of pots are blue and green, though I did pick up a squat fat one coloured like the grandbaby after a self-fed meal of soft carrots and broccoli. You see, I'm wondering about the Beschorneria yuccoides in the old tin bath. Would it (the bath) look nicer full of Echeverias? Would the Beschorneria yuccoides prefer a pot splattered with carrot and broccoli? Yes, I thought so.
Pots, Pots, Pots...
What a great day! Pots, pots, pots... Though as I get tired I lose confidence. My latest idea is to hide the huge teapots away in green shrubby places off the beaten track. That way if they look silly it will only be me that sees them. See what I mean?
Thursday 24th July
Oh boy. I've bought bags of tub mix, and four of the cutest new foliage plants - a coloured Coprosma, a dark wine Phormium, a fat-leaf green Cordyline and a burnt orange Libertia hybrid. I've been swimming, too. And I've bought wipe-your-feet doormats for the house patios. This spending frenzy has totally sapped all my energy. My creativity is well and truly pot-bound!
Spot the Big Teapot!
Having totally lost confidence in my garden designer's eye, both big tea-pots have been trundled into interim leafy positions, and both are well hidden. Hmm... But I think that's the best plan - if one comes upon a huge brown striped teapot by accident, one is likely to laugh at the whimsy rather than see the silliness of its position. I'm not putting any plants in them.
So 'Off-Potting'...
There are two more hours of gardenable daylight, but I've come inside to play the piano. Pot-wise I'll feel more confident tomorrow morning, I reckon. Who would have thought that new pots could end up being so personally 'off-potting'?