Little and often...
'Little and often', a great recipe for winter gardening. It all helps, of course it does, no matter how insignificant the results. One wheelbarrow of rose prunings does make a difference? Half an hour of leaf raking, ditto? Oh yes. Please, yes!
Winnie in my Winter Garden
Some winter days are simply too cold, or too wet, to do any gardening. Yesterday it was cold-windy, and so I played and wrote music all day instead. The dogs and I raced around the orchard from time to time. Well, I plodded, rather than raced, while the two Fred cats scampered alongside me, dodging the racing dogs.
Who can get there first?
They are uber-competitive - who can get 'there' first? Taking straight lines between the rows, or angled hypoteneuses - I'm amazed that no dog crashes into a tree. 'There' isn't clearly marked, either, so I guess neither dog loses face in the end. Hmm...
Two Dogs
Dogs!
Dogs! One of my cherry Docs (heirloom leather boots that silly ladies wear in memory of their lost youth) is missing. Blast! That means Pebbles my young Border Collie has carted it off somewhere. Hopefully she hasn't chewed anything off.
Today the plan is to check all the house lawns etc. for my missing footwear. Then I'll do some trimming.
Later...
Made a great start in the Jelly Bean Border, trimming Phormiums, raking up leaves, and seriously pruning the Ballerina roses. Have stashed some of the mess by the Pump House - it's too windy to burn. Haven't replanted this garden since the Viburnums were chopped down. Maybe buy in some tough shrubs like Choisya and Corokia to fill the gaps? Will continue the trim tomorrow and think some more about new plants. Yeay! Then I found my missing boot, abandoned on the stairs, intact. Phew!
Sunday 7th July
Today I worked hard for six hours. I trimmed more shrubs and roses, finishing off the Ballerina roses. Well, hopefully not...
Ballerina Roses
I raked the lawn and paths, and collected stuff for the bonfire, working my way around the Pond Paddock gardens. Things were quite messy. But not so messy any more! Then I burnt everything (including my favourite bow saw, oops). It has been one of the best days.
A sock mission...
Tomorrow (as well as more gardening) I have two groovy things to look forward to. One, I do NOT have to go out at night to take a choir rehearsal. Yeay! Two, I am going on a sock buying mission in the morning with my friend (we are driving down to Ashburton).
Next day...
I love being the sock fairy. I have bought socks for everyone - lovely merino socks, with right and left feet, some striped thinnish ones, others with spongy, comfy bits on the soles.
Lots of Socks...
This afternoon I did a good trimming session in the garden by the Glass-House. Large Phormium tenaxes are now tidy, dead waterside ferns trimmed, and lots of mess has been scooped up. I decided not to burn, so the bonfire is ringed with piles ready to go tomorrow.
Phormiums by the Water Race - Winter
There's always tomorrow, as far as my winter bonfire goes - 'little and often' describes it rather well. Lots of country folk pile everything into the middle of a paddock and then have one huge winter blaze which flames and smokes all day and all of the night. And sometimes into the next day, etc. Legal, but far too large scale for me.