Little things...
After any gardening session, short or long, it's really nice to see an improvement. But there's not always a correlation between in-put and end-product. Poke at something little for an hour and the results can look amazing. Work for five hard hours at something big, stand back and aargh! Looks just as messy.
Gunnera and Species Daylilies
That's how my second gardening week of 2024 is shaping up. But I've been doing lots of BIG STUFF. Maybe doing something little would help. So here's a list of little things to try.
- Pick up gum bark from house lawn.
- Do edges of front house lawn.
- Pick up all Phormium trimmings off back lawn.
- Do edges of back lawn, and dead-head roses.
Humph.
But there's more! I can get littler! Here's a list of littlish things I noticed as I struggled out the laundry door, up to the washing line, and back past the Herb Spiral :
- Clear around the stone steps. They are impassable.
- Seriously trim the Philadelphus.
- Sit down and weed by the woodshed.
- Pull out Orlaya from the Herb Spiral and dead-head roses.
Humph again.
Three hours later...
A hot nor-west wind and the temperature creeping slowly up to thirty degrees Celsius meant I had to almost ignore my lists - the only place to garden in this horrible wind was in the water race. Spent an hour on List 2 Item 3 but didn't clean up. No shade.
Cleared Water Race
Went over to the water race. Carted loads of Phormium mess to the dumping place by the fence-line. Then I went into the water, immediately found another green species Phormium which was far too fat (and flat), with half its leaves dead. Most of it is now deconstructed.
I have a late New Year's Resolution, if that's OK. Here is it - take a deep breath, and be sure to concentrate!
As well as gushing about how much you adore the spiky greenery of Phormiums in mid-winter, how about keeping a pro-active eye on the species ones, and thinking twice about letting them grow on and on. In fact, how about removing some of them entirely BEFORE they (inevitably) start misbehaving?
Oops. It's pretty long-winded.
Pebbles Waiting
Next day...
A different wind direction today, much less blustery and noisy, but it's still hot. Do more of the little items on those lists? Yes, maybe, but first of all I had to give Pebbles a dog-wash by the pond. A stinky summer dog smell? Not entirely - this was something much more organic than mere dog-sweat. Now she smells most peculiar - the medicated dog shampoo is possibly not such an improvement. Now let's see how far I get in the garden.
Too hot...
Oops. Started trimming the Philadelphus (List 2, Item 2). Naturally it is not finished. Have also trimmed the floppy Hydrangeas (List 2, Item 1), brought the flowers inside for vases, making little cuts at the end of their stems (I read somewhere that one should do this). Sorry to give up so easily, but the sun is too hot. Non-Gardening Partner has just been called out to a paddock grass fire - scary stuff.
Later...
Went back outside into the water race, finished off that Phormium and sliced down a nearby coarse-leafed green Carex. It's ironic that I am suddenly making a huge amount of burnable mess, Just when the fire ban has come on. Not to worry. What has to be done has to be done.
Hey presto!
Just when I was finishing yup, NGP arrived back home and levelled the Phormium stumps with his chain-saw. Hey presto! Just like that. In five minutes. Amazing. Almost without being asked. The chainsaw versus the breadknife, hee hee.