Just one...
Delphiniums
Confession. I think they are silly. But I have made one little personal New Year's resolution. It is as follows : In 2020 I am not going to be boring. I am going to be interesting. Hmm... And who will be the judge of this? Me, hee hee...
Not being boring does not mean that I will tell silly jokes and write humorously about trivial things. I am still a serious gardener, and this will still be a serious gardening journal. Oh yes.
Seriously good...
And today I've made up for my lazy New Year's day by doing twice as much gardening as I could have (?). For six hours I have been seriously good. And cheerful. I've cleared the back lawn and the borders that edge it. I've dead-headed roses, pulled out weeds, trimmed Phormiums, and collected up pieces of gum bark in preparation for lawn mowing.
Into the water race...
After the shortest of lunch breaks I got into the water race. I cut down one Phormium, then weeded and scraped the nearby banks clean. Not so successfully, though - the dog-path on the far side is very weedy.
Originally it was covered with weed mat (by me) and small stones. I thought this would be sensible, but it never worked - loads of weed seedlings just grew on top. I removed most of the weed mat (horrible stuff, would never recommend it). Also found an annoying semi-creepy weed-critter which has popped into my garden from the lawn - will name and shame it, if I can identify it.
The Water Race
Today's work has been pleasant and I've got thoroughly grubby, even if I didn't get all the weeds out. Am beautifully showered in clean clothes, ready to go off to the pub for a meal. But Non-Gardening Partner has been called out to a fire - on a property quite close to us. Any fire that shouldn't be there is a bad fire.
Am loving my new camera. It does really groovy focussing (I am, alas, a lazybones point-and-clicker). Have had fun taking official 2020 portraits of the cats and the dogs. Even Minimus posed for me - eventually - on the pond table, though she always seems to glower and scowl.
Yellow Calendulas
Flowers
It's the time for the daylilies and the first blooms of the hydrangeas. And the flowering annuals (am so glad I sowed my own seeds) are in full swing - for example, the yellow spiky Calendulas. How bright and pretty they looked, when ordering the seeds in early spring. But their flowers look rather like dandelion flowers - same size, same colour, hard to tell the difference at a distance. Bit silly, really.
Am also loving the dahlias. They are bright and beautiful, and I have never had a concentrated mass planting of dahlias before. I really like it. So do the bees. Mass planting for them equals minimum energy loss?
When in the house I am having fun doing music arrangements for my jazz choir. So far : two lovely, smooth bossanovas, a swinging Duke Jordan, and a Thelonius Monk (who I reckon is almost as daft as my dogs). Definitely something with which to tickle the musical brain, apres gardening.
This New Year's resolution of mine : I took a deep breath and asked Non-Gardening Partner for feedback. Was I boring? He didn't know. Was I possibly getting more boring as I got older? He became rather evasive. So I asked him how I could become more interesting? Silence. Oh well.