A welcoming garden?
Have now spent nearly a week in the Welcome Garden. Cleaning up, little by little, day by day. Sitting down, getting grubby, celebrating the improvements.
Phormium on the Boundary
Today Non Gardening Partner came over to look at the scruffy Tagasaste trees, but declined his services. Blast! Sulked for ten minutes, then attacked them with my loppers. Mature lady gardeners who can fix dog-fences can certainly bring down small trees. Well, small parts of them... I was pleased to see that the rest of my dog-fence was OK. Reached the end of the flat section of this garden. Nice work!
Bamboo in the Welcome Garden
Carted three barrowfuls of mess to the bonfire and burnt the lot. NGP redeemed himself by chain-sawing more of the big Wattle tree into log sized pieces.
Wednesday 24th July
For the last two days my focus has shifted to the front area of the Welcome Garden. I've trimmed the rough grass, weeded, and pruned back some of the Tagasaste trees. The dogs have been 'supervising', barking off any intruders who happen to innocently cycle or walk by on the road. Oh joy! Thank you, dogs.
Welcome to the Garden
Today the winter sun was beautifully warm. 'Aren't we lucky to be here, dogs?' No answer. Pruned a bit more, vigorously dug out the squashed green Phormium, then carted all the mess over to the bonfire. Burnt the lot, sat in the damp grass and watched the bonfire flaming away.
Grasses and Shrubs in the Welcome Garden
Here I did a lot of good thinking - about the Welcome Garden (see below), about music, and about life in general. I also thought about the Olympics, and wondered if there would be any replays shown on TV that I could watch as rewards.
The Welcome Garden - For the record...
In winter 2006 I first cleared this area and planted some natives therein. I erected the sign 'Welcome to My Garden'. I also bought a half wine barrel - this is still there, filled to bursting with a vicious variegated Agave.
What happened next?
For the next eight years, hardly a mention - just the occasional shrub watering, a bit of mulching, and some Pittosporum planting.
But in March 2014 I was back clearing up, in the aftermath of next-door's pine forest having blown down. A lot of tree mess had landed in my property, the boundary fence was trashed, and there were huge holes in the ground.
The Back of the Welcome Garden
I was pretty despondent, but the gardener in me acknowledged that there'd be much more sun. Eventually I got the ground cleared and leveled, and planted with Pittosporums and Phormiums. In November 2017 I built my dog-deterrent fence after too many 'incidents'. And now it's 2024. Oops. High time I replaced the broken rotted sign, and enjoyed a proper welcome again, I reckon.