Winter colours...
A rainy weekend, puddles in the driveway and the house lawns. The garden is very wet and wintry looking. But wait! The first Camellias are flowering.
Baby Pink Camellia
Those clever enough to be planted with frost shelter are just loving this weather. Such pretty reds and pinks in the middle of all the greens and browns.
Tinsie Camellias
Of course green is the fundamental colour of my garden - the colour of life, growth, calm reflection. And brown is the delightfully balancing colour of decay. My big Gunnera leaves and ferns change into beautiful shades of brown. They remind me that my garden work needs to step up a notch. I love my garden speaking to me : 'Trim, trim, trim...' Except this morning I'm not listening. I don't feel like getting wet, with mud all over my clothes. Not this morning. Not yet, anyway.
A bit later...
Interesting. Decided to wandering around my garden in the rain with my camera and dogs. Took a wee trip through the Hump Garden and paths. Oops. Got really wet pushing past vegetation. But I was on an improvements mission. As well as seeing problems (overcrowding, poorly placed plantings, and so on), I was looking for solutions.
Looking into the Hump garden
One example was the huge Miscanthus zebrinus grass which has sprawled all over the main path from summer on. Shift the path? Put up a wee restraining bamboo trellis fence? Obviously when trimmed ready for spring it hardly takes up any space at all. Someone (who, I wonder?) has therefore planted recycled roses right underneath it. Oops. They have to move. Oh boy. Oh joy. Might be time to get muddy!
Bulky Phormium
The Phormiums...
All the Phormium hybrids I planted in the Hump Garden in its early days are getting bigger. They've bulked out sideways and - yes, again - they're smothering the nearby roses. I love the Phormiums. Shift some? Hmm...Maybe not. Shift the roses, I think.
Later...
Decided to leave the Hump Garden for now (something to do with finishing off my last list before starting a new one). I worked in the drizzle for an hour and a half, digging out and potting up roses from the Allotment Garden. Removed Whiskey Mac, one of the Graham Thomases, and three others. Why it takes so long to do so little I'll never know. It's too wet and cold for daydreaming.