June gardening...
Leaves in the Pond
June winter gardening... Cold days (brrr), a warm house (yesssss), short days, morning frosts. The cats still hunting, bringing in mice, rats and headless rabbits (no idea which cat does this, but definitely not Tiger). Taking Winnie the dog for lots of brisk walks. The puffy jacket! Woolly gloves! Merino layers!
Being Furry?
Hood up, head down, wondering what it would be like to have fur, as Winnie leaps into the pond happily to retrieve her stick. Blimey, that water is c-c-c-cold.
So gardening hasn't quite figured much in reality, because I've done none over the weekend. I didn't even made a list. But I've been virtual gardening in front of the wood-burner, spell-checking and editing all my old gardening articles. Sometimes I was quite interesting, back in the day. Sometimes I was even funny. And once in a while I was a jolly good writer, but enough of that...
Visitors!
Vistors!
Pick three out of the following : grey, damp, cold, rainy. That's been the long so-called Queen's Birthday weekend, from day to day. But I have had lovely house visitors, and have really enjoyed entertaining them indoors. Visitors do not necessarily want to be dragged outside to talk to me while I huff and puff and feed loads of wet stuff onto a smoking bonfire. Though these visitors are fully winter-hardy...
Tomorrow - a list
Tomorrow I will go out there come what may. I'll write a list. I'll keep warm by working hard. Ha! I've just asked Non-Gardening Partner what bit of the garden I should do. After some negotiation (no, I didn't want to work down by the road, because Buster the cat would follow me) we both agreed that I clear behind the glass-house - a much safer option. I explained how I would proceed - the need for separating the wet weeds from the drier trimmings, what I'd do with the leaves, and so on. He glazed over immediately. Hmm.
Tuesday 6th June
I've done something very silly. We went to the extremely damp and muddy dog park first thing, then I sat around in my wet socks fixing up a bit of choir music. And my feet got colder and colder. Winnie and I went outside briefly to investigate the day. Temperature? Not toasty. Weak sun and blue sky, and I scuttled back inside in a shiver. Hopeless!
Canna Leaf
Six Degrees Celsius...
It's six degrees Celsius, which is a perfectly acceptable temperature in which to do some good winter gardening. I blame my wimpy feet. So I've changed into dry socks, cranked up the wood-burner, and as soon as this hot coffee has been slurped...
Wednesday 7th June
Fact : it takes the same amount of time to a) notice a patch of knee-high weeds, register gardening shock-horror, scuttle inside to have a hot cup of coffee, and write a moaning paragraph in the gardening journal as it does to b) pull them out, fill the wheelbarrow three times, and dump everything under the fence. That's what I did yesterday afternoon, and I finished this garden off today.
The soil below the glass-house is now weed free, and the toad lilies (such lovely autumn perennials) are all chopped down. I also raked wet leaves and scooped them into a big plastic bag. I potted up the 'Bengal Tiger' Canna lilies (they'll over-winter in the glass-house) and did the same for two rescued white Flower carpet Roses. And I did the quickest of glass-house tidy-ups. Throw these over there, those under here, that sort of thing.
Constance Spry Roses
Friday 9th June
Oops. Apologies to my garden, but I've had a couple of dog days. Winnie and I have been for forest walks, trotted around the dog path with our pack, and gone for walks on the retractable lead down the road. Blue skies, too, but oh boy it's been pretty chilly out there. And now I'm off for a swim. I have been a garden no-show, and I will have to make up for it over the weekend.
Saturday 10th June
Yeay! The winter gardener in me has re-emerged from semi-hibernation! Four hours work clearing wet leaves and trimmings from the Jelly Bean Border. I've been cutting dead leaves off the flaxes, too, and removing quite large clumps of grass (oops) from the garden, hiding discretely in the Libertia. I have worked until dusk. And I have enjoyed myself so much.
Rose Rescue!
Poor Constance Spry! She is a large sprawling once flowering pink beauty, and the Clematis montana from the archway into the Pond Paddock was throttling her. Ha! No more. Moosey and the kitchen scissors to the rescue
Please note that the roses in the pretty photograph on this page are not exactly flowering at the moment. The real garden is full of brown and dull green. After all, it is nearly mid-winter.
Winter in the Driveway