Spread out more...
Working in one garden area for days, I lose track of calendar time. I get stuck in a rut and forget that other parts of the garden are growing madly, maybe even getting out of control. Oops. I need to spread myself out more.
A map?
What about a map, with garden areas divided up and days of the week written thereon? Or I could randomly generate, say, three garden areas to work in per day from a list of thousands. Thousands? Aargh!
The Back Lawn and Gardens
Today I'm back on the back house lawn. But I go outside, collect a barrow load of trimmings, then it rains. Run, run, as fast as I can! Inside long enough for my shirt to get half dry. The rain noise stops. Aha! Run, run, outside again. Another barrow load...
Much later...
Finally the rain stopped, so I stayed outside, wandering along with my wheelbarrow dead-heading roses and trimming Phormium flower stalks - they get so heavy they pull the Phormiums apart at the base. Oh yes, I was going really well.
Jumbly Herb Spiral and Garden
And then I arrived at the Herb Spiral and surrounding gardens. Oops. Oh dear. Had forgotten how quickly things grow - as usual.
What I did next...
- Chopped down all the Delphiniums (they might be nice to me and re-flower in autumn).
- Pulled out all the long-stemmed yellow-flowered dandelion weeds. Such a pretty colour.
- Pulled out sticky willie (thanks, birds, for spreading the seeds around my garden).
Then started to dead-head the roses by the water race. Stopped. This is a hedge clippers operation - the roses are the Noack Flower Carpet ones.
White Flower Carpet Roses
Realised that I had only just scratched the surface, and that this garden will need an extremely dedicated version of me, lots of bending over and hands-and-knees weeding, for at least three hours.
Pretty Dahlia
Just wondered...
Wondered (I do this all the time) just when everything grew so much. And why I didn't notice it happening. It seems like yesterday I was picking Delphinium flowers for the house vases.
But that's one of the wonderful things about the garden. That nothing lives for ever (except trees, possibly) and that flowers don't need a reason for blooming, flopping, or dying. Gardeners of edibles have a much clearer, well-reasoned journey - growing, harvesting, trimming, digging out, planning and planting for next season, next year. I'm sure that they are better at noticing growth. A strawberry red enough to eat, beans almost ready to pick...