Big, small...
Red Noack Flower Carpet Rose
Christopher Lloyd (a wonderful gardener and writer) says he 'thinks big, but on a small scale'. What a great gardening dictum! I'd like to think that I do this - even if my big is not quite as big as his...
I rather like that phrase. So Christopher Lloyd and myself happily approach and tackle vast tasks, while at the same time giving time and attention to little details. Yes?
Watering...
And my vast task at the moment is to take notice of smaller details - namely, everything that needs watering - and intervene. For some days now I've been checking sad, drooping shrubs, shifting the hose around. Especially the roses. Sometimes I even stand and hold the hose - the personal touch, trying to give encouragement. We desperately need rain. Non-Gardening Partner is ready to put some water on our boundary Eucalyptus trees and shelter hedges - this means things are really serious!
Saturday 1st February
Today I tried to clean up some gum tree bark from the Dog Kennel garden - pretty hopeless, since mess is still falling from the tree above. So I redirected myself to filling the wheel barrow with Lychnis trimmings. Then - great excitement! My friend delivered fifteen bags of horse manure - yes! This is all going on the Allotment Garden, along with the watering hoses.
The Frisbee Lawn
Sunday 2nd February
It's 34 degrees Celsius, too hot for English roses like me to enjoy being outdoors for long. My hoses are dripping on shrubs, and I'm taking the dogs out to splash and swim in the pond every hour or so. Imagine being furry in 34 degrees!
Esk Sunset
Yeay for the big irrigation!
The big irrigation ran last night, but trees block the water from reaching the new Azalea plantings in the Jelly Bean Border. And I notice that my golf-ball Pittosporums in the new Pond Paddock Garden are not planted deeply enough. Blast! I thought I'd get away with mounding them up with mulch. But the birds have scratched it all out.
Shift the hoses...
Today in the garden will consist of forays outside to shift the hoses and bucket water on sad shrubs. I'm just back from one such - the Maple (Sycamore?) Esk Sunset up in the Shrubbery is droopy, so now it has a drippy hose helping it get on with summer.
Aha! I've named it correctly - a sycamore maple cultivar, Acer pseudoplatanus, developed from a chance seedling discovered in a garden in the Esk Valley, New Zealand. Thanks, Ms Google.
I felt soooooooo very guilty about those Pittosporums, Oh boy! So I went back outside and planted them properly (i.e. dug decent sized holes).
Watering the Camellias
I also hand-watering the Azaleas, giving them a stern telling-off. 'Harden up, softies! Dug out and shifted only a month ago - who cares? So what? Get over it! This is your new home - just stop sulking, be thankful, and get on with your new life'... That sort of thing.