Planting and weeding...
New Pink Azalea
Today I've promised myself I will do lots of planting. Yeay for planting! So much nicer than weeding. A great reward for all the hard weeding work I've been doing...
Played Bach and Albeniz early, then had breakfast under the Wisteria. Then semi-made up a bread recipe for the bread maker, which is whirring and keplunking away. Alas, there is a significant time delay between deciding to make bread this way and eating it.
Have the hoses on here and there, shifting them every half hour. Seems very early in the season to be watering, but better to remember now than be sorry later.
Then on to the planting. Released a Phormium (Blondie) into the Pond Paddock Garden, put a Cordyline in its pot instead. Pretty green Carexes now fill some gaps in the Jelly Bean Border, between the new little Azaleas. One Ward's Ruby has died, but two others are flowering - bright fireman red. Wow! And the new pink one has been in bloom for weeks.
Blast! A weed forest!
Blast! Then saw some alarming weed forests near Willow Bridge. Blast! Stopped planting, resumed weeding. Down on hands and knees, scraped and pulled, while Fred lolled on the nearby bridge and sunned his tummy.
Fred on the Bridge
Then checked out the Koru brick courtyard. Aargh! What a mess! The mossy bricks needed cleaning, leaves needed sweeping up, ferns needed trimming. Might be the silliest thing I've done all week, but I left my barrow and hand tools over there.
Morning Sun on the Copper Beech
Ask Ms Google-Gardener
Asked Ms Google-Gardener for advice. I can remove moss with a solution of vinegar and water, or sprinkling baking soda. Bleach and water is a last resort. Sunlight is the very first option, but then I'd have to cut down the Copper Beech tree. No way! Each method requires a good scrub with a deck brush afterwards. Aaargh! It's going to be hard work. Tomorrow's hard work.
Next morning...
So it was silly leaving everything outside - tools, phone, good shoes, woolly gardening jersey, washing drying on the line - because it rained cats and dogs when I was out at a rehearsal! Oops. Hmm...
Later...
I've been really good today. I found the perfect scrapey tool (oops - might be something to do with plastering, hope I haven't ruined it) and attacked the courtyard bricks. The cover was mostly dirt, not too much moss at all. I found a stiff broom, and swept as much dirt and dust as I could back into the garden. So what's needed now? About six more clumps of Agapanthus for the garden's edge, some horse manure for the deciduous Azaleas (can't remember when they last were fed, oops), and some chain-sawing magic, courtesy of Non-Gardening Partner.
Don't you like Pittosporums?
A Pittosporum on the side of the courtyard has outlived its usefulness. It needs to come down - for design reasons. This will not impress NGP. 'Don't you like Pittosporums?' he will ask, just to be a nuisance. I will direct his eyes to the nearby Copper Beech, which is getting quite large. This beautiful tree deserves the air-space above the courtyard for itself, I will explain. Fair enough? I reckon!
Me by the Clean Brick Path
Oops. Looking at the photograph, I now like the Pittosporum again. So I will find him a replacement to chop down - he won't know the difference. Pittosporums self-seed a lot in my garden. There's no shortage. And have realised than planting and weeding are rather connected. Can't plant things where there are weeds, right?