The power of three...
There are three gardening moods that one can easily wobble in and out of while wandering around taking photographs with the dogs. They concern beauty, mess, and the balance thereof. It goes like this - multi choice! Pick one.
Three Moods...
- Awwww. Look at all the beauty...
- Aargh! Look at all the mess...
- Hmm. Look at nature's wonderful balance of beauty with mess...
I started off today 'self-toggling' between all three states. But it was time to start doing things. And I came up with three more choices - finish something old (the removal of the old forget-me-nots), or start something new (the dead-heading of the roses), or hop around like a random rabbit munching on a bit of everything? Aha! That last choice sounds like me.
I did my best to hop happily here and there. I raked up mess, trimmed tree suckers, and fed the bonfire. I tidied up the forget-me-nots along the edge of the Hump - just the visible ones. I watered and dead-headed roses and every half hour I dragged out another load from behind the pond for the bonfire. All terribly mundane, I'm afraid. I was proud of the length of time I worked, but visible improvements are minimal.
Then I washed my hair and poured myself the most alarming alcoholic concoction - a mixture of pulpy orange juice, flat boysenberry cider, and a dash of cheap and nasty Pinot Noir. Another threesome, hee hee. No style, me...
The Hump
Monday 27th November
No bonfiring - it's rather hot, and the soils are quite dry (our big irrigation is now running once a week). More forget-me-nots have come out of the Welcome Garden, roses in the Allotment Garden have been watered - personally, by hand. But all this hopping around from one task to another leaves me feeling rather unfocused. Better that I stay in one spot and make a noticeable difference? Hmmm...
Tuesday 28th November
So today I tried to balance the garden beauty with the garden mess. I cleaned up the Driveway Garden edges, and trimmed bits of trees. I threw sticks in the pond for the dogs, and ogled at the big rose shrubs - Complicata, Lavender Lassie, Burgundy Iceberg, etc. I cleared all the burnable rubbish from behind the pond and burnt it on the bonfire. I shifted the watering hoses around.
My Surviving Kalmia
I photographed the Kalmia - phew! It's survived being moved, and is flowering gratefully. More sticks in the pond. More rose gazing. I planted my pumpkins in a space in the Allotment Garden (whose roses are magnificent), and I checked the patio pot strawberries. Blast! Eaten by the birdies.
Allotment Garden Roses
The house roses look amazing, and the roses which circle the Herb Spiral are lusciously pink - Strawberry Hill, Sharifa Asma, and the worthy Kate Sheppard, blushing and beautiful. In the next bed Wedgwood and Lady of Megginch are both drooping. They might blame the irrigation, but I blame their design - flower-heads too heavy, stems too weak. But the blooms are beautiful, and I can see them from the bonfire. Right. One more load of mess to be burnt, before I go out to meet my friends for dinner.