Out, out...
Some years ago, in the summer of 2011, I decided to eradicate the invasive Lamium from the garden by the pergola. Ha ha. A wee botanical joke, that. Now it's summer, 2020, and that Lamium is everywhere again. And once more, out it is coming. Nine years' worth of it. Aargh!
Yellow Lamium
For five hours I've been digging it out, just like I did all those years ago. The roots are reasonably superficial, but I need to remove absolutely every little piece. It's been hard work.
A very thick ground cover...
The trouble with yellow flowering Lamium is that it forms a very thick ground cover, stopping the ground below receiving much of the rain or irrigation. It wraps itself thickly around everything from roses to fence posts. And it climbs, too. It's a big nuisance. Pretty lemon flowers in spring, but...
New Year Weeding
Now just a few clumps remain, intertwined with the lilac Phloxes, which are just starting to flower. If I remember (please let me remember) I'll dig the Phloxes up later.
Sunny Darcey Bussell Rose
More perennials needed...
I'm thinking that this garden needs more flowers, and horse manure, too - the soil is very sandy. Some of my loveliest (though floppiest) David Austin roses live herein : Wedgwood, Darcey Bussell, and Lady of Megginch. Plus others more upright like Margaret Merril.
I kept an eagle eye out for the trilliums, which grow in here. But I didn't actually find any. Oops. Where do old trilliums go?
And I dismantled the surrounds of my very basic compost heap (I'd been using an old fire guard to block one side off). Please can Non-Gardening Partner fix it? When big brown Escher visits he snuffles and digs and makes a mess - probably smelling mice and rat trails. Aargh!
Right. I have sore hands from gripping and pulling those weeds out. But clean hair and clothes. And seven of my jazz choir arrangements are printed out, ready to proof. Wow! Writing vocal jazz harmony is usually an exercise in smoothness. So the chords may be changing wildly each beat, but e.g. the altos will get a string of Ds, with perhaps one D-flat to wake them up. Naturally they will complain that this is boring. Hmm. That's the price one pays for being an alto, I reckon.
Rose and Lilac Phlox
Wednesday 8th January
Yeay! Today we went on a family walk up to the Kaituna Saddle, up 300 meters of mainly farm track. The six-year-old legs went very well. The four-year-old legs did their best. The seventy-year-old legs (four of them) were superb! We walked through flocks of Kereru (native pigeons) who flopped into the trees above us after feasting on nearby plums.
Starting Up the Trail
It was really nice to have a day out with no wind and no thinking about my garden. I still love my garden very much. Absence makes the heart grow folder, apparently...