A private gardener...

 Waiting for the fence to be rebuilt.
My Allotment Garden

Grr... The tiniest of growls from a private gardener. I love gardening in my own, private gardening bubble - dogs included, of course. But I have become a neighbour magnet. Like today, head down, settled in and weeding happily by the boundary. As if on cue, along trundles next-door's hired help on a noisy green scoopy machine. It proceeds to clatter up and down right next to me, and I worry for my dogs (they, being empathetic critters, are barking at it to go away).

This is like some weird joke, right? Oh no, this is serious unprivacy, for then along putt-putts the high-viz vested Lord of the Manor Neighbour himself on his four-wheeler to supervise. A rude phrase which means 'go away' does spring to mind.

So the dogs and I remove ourselves and find somewhere else to work. But I am peeved - I was doing so well in that particular garden. I'd pulled out most of the visible weeds, planted the spare potatoes along the boundary line, and chopped more seed-heads off the neighbour's weeds. I was happy.

Not Slow-Vember!

Look - it's November, not known for being 'Slow-vember' in my garden, and I should be far too busy to even notice the neighbours. So I've just had a calming cup of tea, and now I'm off back outside. May even do some bonfire burning. May even peep to see how close to my property the noisy green thing has been scraping. By golly it had better not have damaged anything in my Allotment Garden!

Much Later...

Ha! I got over myself pretty quickly, after some wonderful wanderings with dogs and camera taking photographs of the latest batch of flowering rhododendrons.

I started up my bonfire and trundled around finding barrowfuls of dry rubbish to burn. Then I went back over to the boundary to finish my work. I ignored the noisy green thing, though I had a peep to see what it was doing. Hmm. It has raised the neighbour's driveway, and poured lots of stones into the gap between it and my Allotment Garden.

OK. Not a problem. And am I still grumpy? No way! I am proud of my day, and the Allotment Garden looks amazing with vibrant orange and yellow annuals vying for space with the irises and early roses.

 In a patio pot.
Deep Red Pansy

Saturday 5th November

Now here's a decent reason for being a touch grumpy - the common cold stagnating in my head, tickling my throat and snuffling my nose. It's just sitting there making no upward, downward, or outward progress. Today I've done some more boundary clearing, though the grass seedlings in between the juvenile Deodars are worrisome. Pulling them out singly is taking ages, so spraying them might be the only option, And this needs to be done before they drop their seeds. Hmm. I'd talk to Non-Gardening Partner about this but he has escaped - gone for a fly in his tiddly plane.

Sunday 6th November

After doing a wee singing gig (sounding a bit basso profundo) the dogs and I went over to the boundary to do some more weeding and plant a bag of nerines. As if on cue, down next-door's drive puttered the four-wheeler. I hid behind a Pittosporum and giggled. It then stopped, turned around, and puttered back the way it had came. These random 'drive-by's when I'm working nearby are mystifying. Does my digging trigger some hidden boundary laser beam? Honestly, I am not getting paranoid (hee hee).

Anyway, the fattest of the naked ladies have been privately planted, the slimmest have been binned (sorry about that), and the dogs had something to bark at. And a private gardener is jolly well allowed to be private.