Rough weeding...
Stone Edges
Have been doing a lot of what I call rough weeding. One grabs handfuls of undesirables and pulls energetically. One also does huge horizontal slices with the spade, and then scrapes the mess up with a hand fork. Rough weeding is quite rough on the hands and fingers - whether gloved or ungloved.
My efforts have been very edgy, cleaning up the interface between the garden border and the lawn. Well-buried edging stones have been dug out and relaid. Some escapees (Aconites, Violets, Creeping Charlie) have been pulled out of the lawn. Others have been embraced by the new garden curve. The garden ends up slightly bigger, the lawn slightly smaller. Hee hee. Not a problem.
I started work on the gardens by the glass-house. The path to the Herb Spiral had to be curved around some spreading Hostas, then the garden behind the woodshed enlarged to accommodate seedling Korean Angelicas growing in the lawn. Accommodate is the word - I love these biennials. Then I dug up loads of green Carex seedlings from the lawn and planted the more robust ones in pots.
Stone Edged Gardens
Fact : a curve needs more stones in it if the garden it's edging is enlarged. Found some spares behind the pond, from a decommissioned path, and filled up the gaps. Phew.
Campion
Who is responsible?
Another fact : creeping violets and Creeping Charlie are real pests in a lawn. And whose task should it be to keep these nuisances under control? Surely the person who mows the lawns is responsible? This is unresolved for now, since Non-Gardening Partner is a big softie and will not mow through pretty little flowers (the nuisance violets are pale blue and white).
Saturday 2nd October
Today I did more rough weeding along the top of the Apple Tree Border. Self sown Campion and pretty blue Forget-me-nots were smothering the lawn here. And where were the edging stones? Oh joy! Buried deeply underneath Acanthus and Ferns. Dug them out and relaid them. Looks grand!
I must note that rough weeding doesn't leave energy for anything else physical (like bonfiring), or any mental energy for dreamy, reflective thinking. So I end up being a dull-brain, with nothing to say.
Hello, legs and feet!
So here's the plan for the rest of the day. Give the hands and fingers a break. Do some plodding. Hello, feet and legs! Barrow at least six loads of mess over to the bonfire. But there's a trick - DO NOT light it. Not yet. Spend a slow hour doing some thinking. Hold the watering hose and water the house patio plants. Send each strawberry, rose, ornamental grass a loving thought-message. Do not rush. Water-meditate. DO NOT think about the bonfire.
Canary Bird Roses
Just before dusk, stop thinking. Light the bonfire, rake like mad, and burn everything.
Sunday 3rd October
Aha! Today I did rough weeding in the Septic Tank Border. I replanted the weeping Camellia and the golden leafed Choisya in deeper planting holes.
Red Rhododendron Kaka
Bye bye periwinkle?
I dug out oversized green Carexes, and also removed (oh yes?) the stray periwinkle. One little piece of root had come in attached to one little Agapanthus clump. Just one. That's all it took!
Also cut down the archway Clematis montana, most of which was woody and bloomless. It will re-sprout. And it is allowed to. Then I moved along towards the big gum tree - again enlarging the garden border. Lost my new scissors. Blast.
Lit the bonfire really late. But it was slow burning - I had to sift through everything trying to find my lost scissors. Hoping that the bright red handles would be visible. No luck. Blast again!