Feed the Camellias!
Pink Camellias
I need to spread horse manure around the Camellias. Right time? Don't care. Seems an appropriate way to thank them for flowering so beautifully. Some are going brown now, and that's perfectly acceptable. The later ones are flowering beautifully.
It's been a balmy spring day, no wind, birds chirping, sun beaming down. But sometimes in my garden the simplest, most repetitive things take me ages and ages. No wonder I never get anything finished!
Like today - I've already done four hours work. I weed until the wheelbarrow is full, dump it, then collect a barrowful of mulch, tip and spread it. I have done this four times. Only one per hour - hmm... Now the plan is to have a cup of tea, and enjoy the big blossom tree. So much needs mulching - I'm wondering if I could get the tractor to help. I haven't moved any horse manure, either. Naughty.
Thursday 19th September
Ooops. Feeling slow this morning, slightly unmotivated. Not good. Have even thought about visiting the supermarket for something to do. The supermarket? Whatever for? Look, it's going to be a lovely day for gardening. I need a list!
No - I'll put things in a paragraph. First, I'll put on a load of washing (this is so NOT worthy of being in a serious list). Another cup of tea, and half an hour's piano practice (fingers plodding through Albeniz's Iberia Suite, when they should be dancing and twirling). The dogs and I will then go for a walk in the orchard and check for lambs. I'll take photographs (the first pink blossom trees and the big pink rhododendron are flowering). That should take me rather nicely to morning coffee. Or even lunchtime...
Blossom and Rhododendron
Aha! Here are some more things I need to do. Mulching. Bonfiring. Cleaning up the scrappy hedge trimmings. More weeding. Feeding the Camellias. And so on, and so on... Lists are so easy to write! Good luck to me, I say.
Much, much later...
I spent the morning weeding behind the Stables, and barrowing load of burnable mess over to the bonfire. Then - silly me - I did go to the supermarket, because there was no food for me (or my birds) in my house. And I bought Minimus my cottage cat a lovely selection of wet and dried cat food to try out. Minimus can be a little fussy.
Forget-Me-Nots and Gnomes by the Cottage
Started the bonfire immediately I got home. For two hours I burnt loads of mess, including the piles of hedge trimmings which were still sitting in the orchard. Crikey - that hedge was trimmed months ago, the needles really dried out. 'Crackle, crackle, we know' said the flames.
Sorry, Camellias...
And, as yet, no Camellia has been given even the smallest dollop of horse manure. So sorry, you beautiful shrubs.