Off days...
Almost Autumn Colours
Gardeners are allowed - just sometimes - to be uninspired. It's OK to have a few 'off' days, particularly when shrubs are being eaten by opportunist caterpillars, and Eucalpytus tree leaves keep fluttering down, covering lawns and borders, making everything look scruffy.
Recent dreadful events in my city have been difficult to process, and I've been turning to music and Youtube driver's view train journeys for time fillers. The dogs have not appreciated this change of direction at all. Boring! Let's doooooo something!
Sorry, dogs...
So today I decided that enough was enough. Sorry, dogs. Let's clean up the patio and the decking. Not a problem. Imagine how nice it will be for visitors not to have to step over old pots, or weave their way past the why-on-earth-should-we-build-fruit tomatoes. This will be such a visible improvement, and should take - half an hour?
Diligent?
Oh yes? How about all day, like over four hours, and hardly anything to show for it? Diligent has been the Word de Jour, but alas, for me 'diligent' is dead slow, like a snail, several of which I found clinging to the side of the tomato pots. I dismantled all the beefsteaks. Daft things! OK, so I'll never again try to grow these in large pots. Every fruit which shows the slightest sign of ripening has also rotted. Humph. However the heirloom 'Indigo Apple' tomatoes are OK - they're odd, with purple tops and red bottoms, but delicious.
Pebbles and Gunnera Mess
I decided not to sit on the patio for any of my breaks, since all the house gardens desperately need those gum leaves raked off, and their perennials etc. trimmed. Not relaxing.
Winnie the Dieting Dog
Unrewarding again...
Again today my gardening has felt rather unrewarding - odd for me to be so uninspired, two days in a row. I usually love being outside pottering. But I have been good - I've rescued a large Camellia from strangulation by a Clematis montana. All the rampant vine growth did eventually pull off, and I cut the offender down to his ankles.
Then I went trimming in the gardens behind the Stables for three hours, with very little to show for it. Liglarias and Euphorbias have spread everywhere, roses are sadly struggling, a few have even died. Oops. Lack of water, mainly, plus an excess of tree growth above. Oh well.
Winnie (my older dog) and I are both on food reduction programmes - for our own good, to give our aging joints a better deal. Does Winnie appreciate this kindness? Not a jot. Yesterday she disappeared, re-appearing half an hour later, super-stinky. Aargh! So today I kept her busy by throwing her tennis ball over the water (she has to run right round to retrieve it). The neighbour rang last night- Winnie had been over there, staring into her kitchen. Oops.
OK. I promise to snap out of this uninspired mood. I will celebrate all the wonderful rich colours that fill my garden (see above). I will lustily spread horse manure around, water all the roses really well, and cover all the trimmed gardens with mulch. I will swing that shovel and dig out anything that offends me. I will saw down branches of overhanging trees. I will feel better about my garden and about life. I will be an inspired gardener again. I promise. And right now I'm going back outside to bucket some water on my fence-line Pittosporums.
Postscript, several days later...
Ha! I am back! I have spread twenty bags of horse manure over the garden by the back door. I have trimmed and weeded. I have sloshed along the water race cutting off dead Phormium leaves. I have spent four long hours helping with the log splitting, and I've stacked two trailer loads of firewood. It's good to be back.