Ready for Christmas?
NZ Gardener Rose
Oh dear. Is my garden ready for Christmas? No. My garden is never ready for anything. Am I ready for Christmas? No. But I have wrapped up Winnie the dogs's present. Guess what it is? A pack of brand new tennis balls. Is the house ready for Christmas? No. But I have mopped and scrubbed the downstairs toilet floor. All the outdoor-indoor flow (by which I mean dirt from the garden) has gone, and the doors are clean from dog dirt.
Two hours later...
Watered the new shrubs and spread more sheep poos around them. Watered the Pond Paddock's pots, brought out another pot of Cannas from the glass-house, have submerged it in the pond to get a good soaking. Then cleared two barrowfuls of mess from around the glass-house. Mainly Alkanet and Campion, plus quite a lot of variegated Elm tree suckers.
Friday 22nd December
Have just come home from playing in my friend's recorder ensemble. What a hoot! I played the hand drum and the sleigh bells (it is, after all, Christmas), plus a bit of piano. Lots of fun. A lovely recorder group playing lovely arrangements of Christmas Carols - really lovely!
So now to the garden. What to do first? Change out of my performing clothes, take some photographs, even take a Christmas selfie (maybe try and include the dogs). Lucky me. Imagine if I had to work a real job (aargh) or if my knees were too sore (aargh) or my head was just too garden-lazy. Oops. Shouldn't have included that last thought, since I have a whole swag of enticing library books to read.
Four hours later...
Am so pleased with myself. Half of the Frisbee Lawn Border is ready for Christmas. But I stopped for a reason.
The Frisbee Lawn and Border
Ivy which I cleared from this border over ten years ago (in February 2012 - I checked) has regrown. At this stage it's superficial. Ha ha! Said with full confidence. It needs to be removed again. But then I should fill the gaps with something else. Agapanthus? Aha! Agapanthus! The go-to plant. That means digging out clumps from behind the pond and trundling them over in the wheelbarrow. Too much plodding late in the gardening day. So I stopped.
Me and Fred
Me and Fred
Then Non-Gardening Partner arrived home and took photographs of me for me (my selfies didn't work). I think I look very, very happy in my garden. Fred might look awkward, but he is totally relaxed. What a beautiful tangerine tummy!
Saturday, early evening...
Today I did three more hours work in the Frisbee Border. So it would be easy to remove all that ivy? Right? Wrong. And I ran out of puff as far as planting Agapanthus went. But I'm definitely on track. Have stopped underneath the Golden Elm. Finished my day helping NGP with the bonfire. He has started trimming the Olearia hedge.
Then I had a shower, put on my new Christmas three-quarter pants (they are avocado green), and made a lamb roast left-overs pie, which is cooking. Yum. A great day.