Ideas...
Euryops chrysanthemoides
Some ideas are lofty, maybe inspired by an inspiring picture in a glossy gardening book. Others are downright mundane, and small-scale. And these are often the ones with the most spectacular results.
So how sensible is this latest idea of mine? There are lots of self-sown seedlings growing in and around the path stones near the house. When I use the path I have to dodge them, usually wobbling off onto the wet grass. Or I forget and trample them. So how about I pot them up, then put them in the glass-house to over-winter? My shoes won't get so wet. I'll do it!
Sunday 11th June
And there are also little Cordyline seedlings in the Pond Paddock grass, a rose in the Apple Tree Border which is hopelessly squashed, and a rhododendron in the Jelly Bean which has sat for seventeen years and not flowered. That's one enormous sulk! Why not dig these plants out and pop them into welcoming pots? I've just remembered the seedling Anemanthele grasses covering the Wattle Woods path. I promised myself I'd scoop them up and pot them, before I raked and mulched this path.
Internal recycling...
So my focus for the next few days can be called rationalising my resources, or internal recycling, whatever... All it will take is time and potting mix, a decent memory for past promises, and attention to small, insignificant details, understanding that the results could be large and stunning.
Lady of Megginich :- A rather lovely deep pink David Austin rose - robust, healthy, an interesting colour.
Ha! I'll definitely do it. In fact, I'll also shift some sad roses into pots. A Lady of Megginch and Crepuscule are two reasonably new roses, both planted near the pergola, and they have both sulked for three years. Two too many, I reckon, if you're a rose! Luckily there's another super-healthy Lady, just next to the compost heap. I so enjoy her flowering when I'm bonfiring nearby.
Buster and Gunnera Seedhead
Three Hours Later...
After making a good start - such is gardening life - I wandered off to light the bonfire. I spied Buster my black cat 'tailing' me at a discrete distance. She is an International Cat of Mystery! And then I had to rake up gum leaves and collect dead Cordyline leaves to keep it going. Then I did a detour to the shade garden at the back of the house, where I raked up small fallen Pittosporum branches and trimmed dead pieces of Pseudopanax.
On the way to the bonfire with this precarious load I rescued a fat-leaf Cordyline from a large pot (too dry). He went into the garden opposite, out came a clump of Nerines, and they went into a pot (along with Heuchera pieces and Cordyline seedlings). I feel that I've been really really busy going nowhere. With Buster following my every move...
But hey! If I keep going nowhere for another three hours - surely I will have achieved something? Watch this space...
A tiny piece of trivia : my piano tuner liked the yellow winter flowering daisy shrub I grow. He wondered what it was called. I've always called it a 'Paris daisy', though why something so weedy and functional should be associated with Paris puzzled me. Oops. That name is wrong. I even wonder if I made it up. This plant is properly called Euryops chrysanthemoides - it's a South African Bush Daisy. Oops.
The Hedge Trimmer
Much Later, Dusk...
Aargh! There I was, having just shifted the Lady of Megginch into the Allotment Garden (no mucking around in a pot for her) when I heard voices. Eek! It was the hedge trimmer man, expected months ago (we'd given up on him), standing talking to Non-Gardening Partner about trimming the Leyland shelter belt.
Some of your plants have to be shifted, said NGP. 'Not a problem' I trilled, all smiles. When did he want to start? Aargh! Right then and there. But he could do the front paddock hedge first. Phew! Perennials, small shrubs, three large rhododendrons, and a branch of the Dogwood tree Stokes Pink had to be removed in a hurry.
Too scary - imagine if we hadn't been home! Anyway NGP dug madly and heaved the rhododendrons out to safety (pulling the biggest one out with the car) while I dug out Corokias, red Cordylines, a Nandina, Roses, Renga Renga, Irises, perennial Lupins, and Eryngium yuccifolium... And just on cue the huge trimmer machine trundled over the Car Bridge and into position. Oh my goodness. Just like that!
Bonfire
Shredding and Burning...
And guess what? Now I have all the Leyland trimmings to shred (the longer, straighter branches) and burn (the scruffy little pieces). Hey presto! Three weeks' work has magically appeared. So much for spending my days lightly and dreamily pottering, recycling my little plant treasures.
Monday 12th June
Three and a half hours raking, throwing piles of trimmings under the hedge, or out near the garden for the shredder (trunks all pointing the right way). And burning the scrappy bits. My friend has been helping me. The hedge trimmer man is a no-show, and his huge machine is parked up on the lawn by the Dog-Path Garden. Now I wonder if it will sit there for weeks. This hedge trimmer is man-random!
Dusk...
Another three hours, raking, piling up branches, and burning. Yeay for me! And my friend (who brought us sushi for lunch). And my dog, throw-the-ball Winnie, who kept me company all day. Occasionally she'd lose her tennis ball. Where was it? She'd stare like a statue at the wheelbarrow. OK. She'd dropped it in there, an easier height for the thrower. So my Border Collie is a 'pointer'... So brainy, that's what she is!
The Hedge Trimmer
I've had a super-shower, but now I have to return to the bonfire and poke at it. That smoke had better stay away from my clean bits!
A Bit Later...
Oops. The wind had got up and was swirling around, noisy, too strong, too scary. So I had to put my bonfire out (ten buckets of water needed). Oops again. And I haven't really followed through with my good idea. But needs must. The hedge trimmings will probably take over for the next couple of weeks. My good idea will have to last til then.