The boss!
New Climber Crimson Cascade
While driving in to choir rehearsals I've been listening to a talking book : Penelope Lively's 'Life in the Garden'. Apparently my latest gardening hero (Christopher Lloyd Wright) caused outrage by ripping out his roses. Oh dear me.
But they were his roses, right? And it's perfectly OK to change your own garden plants around. Surely in your own garden you can be the boss? Why ever not? I am.
The path boss...
I am definitely the boss of my own garden paths, because none of them have permanent surfaces (just earth and soft mulch). I decide where they go - after all, the dogs and I are the main users. Silly paths are decommissioned and their edging (river stones or logs) used somewhere else. When a necessary path becomes unusable, it's easier to shift it, rather than dig out and replant the plants and shrubs.
The paths in the Hump have been worrying me for some time now. So over the last two days I have completely re-routed the main one. It's been impassable for weeks now. But I've fixed it - so easily.
New Hump Path
A sensible path
No longer is it blocked at its entrance by floppy, feathery Anemanthele grasses. Nor does it blunder into some huge clumps of perennial Nicotianas, or scrape past (ouch) two Clair Matin roses (I'd tried propping the rose canes up on a makeshift trellis, but that didn't work). Aha! The new path simply avoids these desirable obstacles, and goes a much more sensible way. As a sensible path should. Perfect!
When one is clearing a new path through garden infested with invasive Lamium and self-sown potatoes, it's best not to look up. Too disheartening. Head down, maybe even sit down, slice with the shovel, fill the barrow, trundle it over to the dumping place, then back for more.
Quite suddenly the path is two thirds finished - yeay! Head down, keep going, keep going... Yeay! Finished!
My new path has only taken me two gardening days to sort out. It is a lovely path, full of purpose, with a gradual curve around the Viburnum tinus shrubs. Then it does the cutest wiggle and joins back up with the original path.
New Hump Path
All the logs that edged the old route are now edging the new. All the potatoes which were in the way are now in brown paper bags in the dark depths of my pantry. I chopped up the Nicotianas for mulch - so the seeds might be inspired to build me new plants. And the new path passed the canine test - I called my dogs over, and they used the path to get to me.
New Climber Autumn Sunset Rose
The two new climbing roses (donated by a singing friend) are already well established on the archway under which the path passes. I only had to dig out one enormous clump of red dahlias, and three Anamenthele grasses, which I've replanted further along the Hump Garden. Only the Lamium has been 'wasted', but Lamium is an invasive nuisance anyway.
Share the Flower
Bumble bees
I know I've mentioned them before, and before that, and probably on every summer journal page, but I'm loving watching the bumble bees. There are lots of them in the garden at the moment.
One can be busy (or snoozing) on his dahlia flower, then another arrives and lands right on top of him. Oops! The first bee just moves over. Awwwww... Bee friends! Share the flower...
Life in the Garden...
By the way, Penelope Lively writes well, even if her book Life in The Garden contains about as much repetition as a good gardener's week. Well worth reading or listening to.