My birthday week begins...
Plantation Pink Camellias
Good morning September. And welcome to my birthday week. My spring garden looks amazing. Gush, gush. Forget-me-nots in flower, patchy daffodils, the early blossom trees, Camellias - even a wee patch of Muscari. Hey! I love them - because they're blue?
An amazing spring garden...
I am a very lucky gardener, I reckon, to enjoy the challenges and rewards of such an amazing spring garden. And there is always a reason to get out there and do something. At the moment it is that annoying little W word : 'weeding'. I have different versions of weeding, depending on the degree of difficulty of the weeds. Eco-spray is the last resort. I despise Roundup, and have never resorted to a blowtorch...
Yesterday...
Yesterday I did scrapey weeding by the Pergola. I avoided squashing too much that was trying to legitimately grow. I did my very best to get the complete roots of the dandelions out. I removed a lot of what I call Parachute weeds - possibly called Shepherd's Needles? But then I notice large clumps with their pretty little white flowers growing in the nearby lawns. Hmm...
Weeded Garden
Today I scraped and pulled more nuisances out of the garden near Tiger the Cat's grave. I like talking quietly to her. I praise her for doing so well in life, and tell her how the Fred cats and Buster are getting on. Tiger had little to do with Minimus my cottage cat, so that name always draws a blank. Have fond memories of Tiger and one of the Freds sparring in slow motion, just one paw each, before deciding that stretching out together in front of the log-burner was a much better idea.
Sally Holmes rose :- Sally Holmes is a wonderful rose in my garden.
I planted more recycled roses and dahlias. Two more, from a friend's garden, are squatting patiently in water barrels - Erotica (which I will definitely not Google) and Sally Holmes - a great rose for a spacious country garden.
There's some spring sadness, though, having just buried two dead lambs. The natural extrapolation confuses me. I value living things, and these deaths are really upsetting. So then why am I not a vegetarian? I don't want to have any more lambs, so to speak. Will talk with Non-Gardening Partner about this.
Daffodils by the House
Tuesday 3rd September
Right. On with my birthday week, after this little emotional wobble. Today I am taking birthday eggs (free range, from the lady down the road) to my lovely daughter. I have also rationalised my wardrobe, hee hee. So remind me - exactly how many apres-gardening white cotton shirts do I need? Ditto blue gardening shirts and jeans? I could clothe an army of under-weeders...
Much Later...
I did some good muddy-knees weeding, then I decided to build a new birthday path through the Hump - as one does. I grabbed the spade before inspiration faded. I sliced Periwinkle and Lamium off the route, and edged the path with stones and logs. There are still lots of weeds to pull out, and the path needs to join up with the other one.
Most importantly, I like my birthday path - it makes garden sense. I also dug out a lot of grass clumps (thankfully annual) and some beautifully tall parachute weeds - all legacies of the horse manure which went on this garden a year ago.
Birthday Path
In between weeding, the dogs and I made lots of trips around the orchard to check discretely on the ewes in lamb in the next-door paddock. In our last walk we flushed out seven fat pheasants, and six waddling mallard ducks. This is terribly stimulating for dog-brains, and the birds are escorted vigorously off the property. That's a polite way of saying 'chased'.