Love those vouchers...
Unknown Red Rose
Hee hee. I have a voucher to spend at a large house and garden department store. It is (by my standards) a large voucher, for three hundred and fifty dollars. Wow! Who says vouchers are boring gifts? Vouchers! I love getting vouchers! Yeay for vouchers...
Already I've made some preparatory plans (in other words, lists) on paper (sorry about this). Having a large voucher is the loveliest of dilemmas. Should I just buy plants for one garden area? I'm thinking the newly cleared area of the Hump, and useful, tough filler shrubs like Pittosporums. Pittosporums are good in my garden, growing in inhospitable place underneath gum trees, or in the dry shade, or the windiest sunniest spots. Never a problem. I love Pittosporums.
A naughty thought...
Now here's a naughty thought. I could indulge myself, and fill up my car with roses and wee maples. Ahem. Stop right there. I do not need more roses. And planting wee maples in mid-summer? Could be distressing (for the maples).
Oooh! So exciting, thinking about what to buy, then imagining the plants nestling happily in the garden. Here's another thought. I'd love to have some more little Blondie Phormiums. There's one on a pot by the cottage, so modest and well-behaved (unlike other blondies I know). Now I'm seeing a mass planting of Blondies underneath the flowering cherry trees in the Pond Paddock.
Blondie Phormium in Spring
Aha! The new Pond Paddock garden! It could do with some filler shrubs. And what about a new sun umbrella for the outdoor table by the pond? Terribly sensible. Except I don't sit there so much from mid-summer on, because of the mosquitoes. I had the tiniest tickle of a thought about instant colour. But no, this is not really appropriate. I really need to be terribly sensible, and spend this voucher on the future, rather than pretty pots of colourful annuals which won't last very long in the summer heat. No. Let's recap. This voucher is for shrubs. But not roses. There are too many roses already in my garden.
Later...
Hee hee. Off I went to the store, just to spy out what was available. But then I found a sale-price area, and started grabbing plants : four 'Golfball' Pittosporums (Large ones, labelled Pittosporum Silverball) and two Carexes (Spark Plug is their nursery name, Carex phyllocephala). And then I bought a pack of new hand tools (am always losing mine, oops). There were no Blondies (or any other coloured Phormiums) in the bargain bin, I'm afraid. So I bought one from the nursery on my way home, together with some potting mix.
New Pittosporums
I've planed my new plants in the Pond Paddock Garden. Every morning I walk past here, going from the cottage to the house, so I can easily keep them watered. My friend has also given me a huge box of Renga Renga in root trainers. They have gone around the edge of the new garden. The wee hoses are on and I am happy. Especially now that Non-gardening Partner has mowed the Pond Paddock. That seems to make such a difference.
Michelangelo Roses
And the best thing of all? I still have two hundred dollars left on my voucher, so I can make another trip to check out the bargain bin, maybe after Christmas day. But absolutely no roses. Rose restraint is required.