So Far So Good...
Mess to Clean Up
Ha! So far so good. I've started the new gardening year pretty well. Mindful of 2024's New Year's Resolution (Why do I do this? There's only one, but I will be ignoring it by the middle of January) I have stuck to one thing and tried to finish it. Well, sort of.
Generic...
But it's one generic thing, namely slicing down lots of the overgrown Phormiums which grow on the side of the water race. So you could say my New Year's Resolution has merely been expanded, hee hee.
On New Year's Eve I worked away at a large sprawling green Cookianum species - far too fat and far too wide. Today I got most of it down, and also made a start on the huge Phormium tenax growing nearby. Technically a different task, maybe, but hey! My New Year's Resolution has a certain amount of flexibility written into it.
Chopping down Phormiums is repetitive, and the species varieties grow alarmingly large, so it's long, hard work. Phormium fibres are so tough that saws and axes are hopeless. I use a sharp breadknife for the living leaves, and secateurs for the dead ones. None of the leaves can be composted or green-wasted, so to speak, so the clean-up takes ages.
Raspberry Daylilies
Naughty...
Today I left everything where it fell. Naughty, but my New Year's Resolution doesn't say anything about cleaning up mess immediately after making it. So there!
Tuesday 2nd January
Nor does my New Year's Resolution say anything about having to go gardening before mid-day. I've been for a swim, and now I'm going to play my piano. So there again!
Late afternoon...
Played Albeniz and Bach for two hours. Then spent three hours chopping down yet more Phormium leaves. Got the species tenax down completely, and all the wet leaves stashed underneath the hedge, the dry dumped on the bonfire. Non-Gardening Partner (wisely) has escaped and gone flying, taking advantage of a calm clear day. Pity, because he knows I have chain-sawing for him to do. I have more dings on my hands (and a plaster on the bloodiest, sorry about this) to show for my hard work.
Am very pleased, though. Yeay for 2024! Have definitely made a good start. Enjoying the Hydrangeas - this is their flowering time. Pretty colours!