Happy?
The Angel of the Gum Tree
I am very happy in my garden. But I am not happy with my garden. Areas that get irrigated are fine, others not so. Bad planting choices, lack of sensible watering plans - hoses not reaching, moisture running off compacted soil... So technically speaking I am not happy with me! Aargh!
Late summer...
Things often come to a head in late summer (now), especially when we've had rubbish rainfall. And so the big irrigation runs every night - the sheep paddocks strip by strip, top-ups of my back and front house gardens, the orchard, and so on.
Have been slowly digging up sad roses and other moveable, struggling shrubs, potting them up in garden mix. Have asked them all nicely to wait a few weeks until proper autumn arrives. And, hopefully, some rain. Please, some rain. Gentle rain, and lots of it on different days would be nice.
Kronenbourg Rose
But one must soldier on, right? Today I've been multi-tasking : scooping mess up from the house gardens (thick layers of gum tree leaves are covering the soil) while simultaneously throwing Winnie's ball over the Island Bed. It's her favourite bright blue moonball, the one that makes lovely squidgy sounds when she carries it in her mouth. Being bright blue is great - the tennis balls I throw in the garden end up a grubby camouflage dirt colour, easily lost.
Sunny Dahlia
Later...
Off I went into the Hump - my plan was to finish dead-heading the dahlias and weeding the paths. But I was immediately distracted by the thorny self-seeded Locust tree. Decided to chop it down. The decision was quick, but it took me nearly three hours to deconstruct this monster tree (about five meters tall). Spikes all along the branches made the pieces difficult to handle - guess who wasn't wearing gloves? So my hands are a little worse for wear.
Why so long?
Why on earth did it take me so long? I seemed to be forever trudging back and forth dragging out spike-covered limbs, trying not to scratch anything. But really! The complete mess fitted into five barrowloads. Perhaps I am just super slow. Sawing through some of the larger limbs took ages, I guess. Anyway, I've left the stumpy bits. It will take Non-Gardening Partner all of one minute to chainsaw them down to the ground. This always seems unfair to me. Hmm...
Late Summer - Early Autumn?
Found this quote from George Eliot : It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees. Might add to it - we must run more irrigation pipes. Oops. Rather insensitive. That wasn't the point of the quote, was it?