Garden Journal 2024

2024 is almost over, but finally I am able to collect up my journal pages and present them here, in their correct year! Not that the garden even notices...

More woodwork...More woodwork......
The responsible gardener attends to details. They always clean up and finish properly at the end of each day. The realistic gardener is aware of the schedules of the seasons, and the needs of their garden, understanding they will never, ever be in complete control. Especially of large trees. Aargh!
Bonfire and blossom...Bonfire and blossom......
Have spent the last two days dragging branches of Wattle tree to the bonfire, chopping them into pieces, and burning them. My toes inside my socks and gardening boots get incredibly dusty - this might be the most interesting thing I have to report, I'm afraid. And my back gets achy...
Not really grumpy...Not really grumpy......
Am not grumpy, not really. Have been very busy musically, which I really enjoy, but I miss being in my garden. My garden is my special place, where I try my best, laugh, and only occasionally cry. And of course in spring the garden is bursting with energy. I like to give it my energy in return.
A new week...A new week......
This new September week promises a lighter non-gardening load, and therefore there can be no excuses. Yeay! I will work really efficiently. I will finish things. And most of all I will enjoy spring in my garden.
Oh dear...Oh dear......
This new September week promises a lighter non-gardening load, and therefore there can be no excuses. Yeay! I will work really efficiently. I will finish things. And most of all I will enjoy spring in my garden.
Rehearsals...Rehearsals......
I thought this week was going to be a dedicated spring gardening week! Today I was busy with rehearsals for ballet and music. Oh well, I guess a busy mind and body can certainly cope. More enjoyable than practicing hand weeding!
Sort out the weeds...Sort out the weeds......
ha! I have two whole days to sort out the weeds in the Hump Garden. And I will jolly well sort them out, with hand scrapers and a spade. And if I get too cross - who knows? I'll threaten them with a squirty unmentionable chemical compound (might scare them more than the spade, hee hee).
Really October!Really October!...
October has sneaked up on me when I wasn't looking. It arrived yesterday, silently, when I was preoccupied, spending my third concentrated weeding day in the Hump Gardens. So it's really October. Wow!
Only two days...Only two days......
Have been AWOL from the garden for two days. Oh dear! Suddenly things in the gardens over the water race are not so good. It's weeds, weeds, and more weeds. Mess, mess, and more mess. Surely not in two days? Must have been brewing for weeks.
Dandelions...Dandelions......
Have just popped outside to take a photograph of the dandelions. I didn't know that dandelions close their flowers up when there's no sun. So my lawns are spotty yellow in the sunshine, but sleek green (if slightly long-grassed) when it's cloudy? Or perhaps dandelions just don't 'do' early mornings. Interesting...
Big things, little things....Big things, little things.......
October in my garden is amazing on all scales. Big things like massive colour displays from the first big rhododendrons, the pink blossom trees, and the Dogwoods starting to flower.
Better than none...Better than none......
Excuse my grammar, but the rhyme is irresistible. As far as gardening goes, one hour is better than none hours.
Garden visitors...Garden visitors......
This morning two of my lovely singing friends visited (wearing sensible shoes) for a wee private garden tour. Of course, as we wandered around I saw much in the garden that needed tidying up. Patches of weeds, gnomes that had fallen over, paths that were blocked, tools abandoned, pots abandoned, and so on.
Still flowering...Still flowering......
Am enjoying the Wisteria still flowering on the patio. Breakfasts at the patio table beckon - well, perhaps lunches, since these last few mornings have been quite cold.
Magnificent shrubs!Magnificent shrubs!...
Good morning to my garden. Your shrubs are looking magnificent. I am so proud of you, of them, and of me. And oh my goodness - how large some of your rhododendrons have grown! Amazing. Wow. Assorted exclamations of joy and surprise.
No rehearsals!No rehearsals!...
It's an absolutely beautiful morning, and I don't have any rehearsals for anything! Yeay! The creative mind can be totally concentrated on the garden. So far I've done my piano practice (just for me) and weeded for an hour in the Driveway Garden.
Oh joy!Oh joy!...
Oh joy! My garden brings me such joy. Must remember this, when my spirits flag at the end of a gruelling day. Gruelling? Probably a little over-dramatic. Should spend more time sitting and enjoying the colours and the greenery with my cats and dogs.
Silly weatherSilly weather...
This weather is silly. Two days of temperatures in the mid-twenties (Celsius), too hot to be in the direct sun, plants in pots needing watering. Then continuous rain arriving for the weekend, when temperatures will be cut by half - or more.
Puddles...Puddles......
Puddles, puddles, puddles. Everywhere. Woke in the middle of the night and listened to the rain beating on the cottage roof - gave thanks that my soil is free-draining. The prediction is for at least one month's worth of rain falling in twenty four hour
A happy garden...A happy garden......
After 75mm of rain in two days (slightly more than our monthly average, good morning to my happy garden. Hope you enjoyed the precipitation. More and more shrubs are flowering - so beautiful, and bringing me so much joy.
Naughty again...Naughty again......
Have been naughty again. I've been outside in my lunchtime cafe clothes (white linen shirt, good jeans and shoes) pruning suckers, trimming the edges, and raking up mess. Soooo naughty!
Lost time....Lost time.......
Subsumed (?) by singing commitments, preparations for concerts and recitals, I lost valuable gardening time, my hand diggers and my gardening energy. Oh joy!
A silly week!A silly week!...
What a silly week I've had. I've hardly written a sentence in my gardening journal. It's been full of mainly music commitments - singing, taking choirs, writing music scores. I also 'lost' another whole weekend (the second in a row).
So much going onSo much going on...
Oh, the garden! So much going on - flowering shrubs, shining green foliage, tall deciduous trees with their new leaves. And so many roses!
So many rose photographs...So many rose photographs......
I have so many rose photographs. Probably because I have so many roses, hee hee. Lucky me. And some are so much earlier (or later) to bloom than others. Funny how that happens. For me it's one of nature's magical mysteries.
More roses...More roses......
Have decided that every rose in my garden deserves to be celebrated and published, with a photograph. So many roses to honour - have filled up my journal with many pictures already. But there are more! Always more. Take a deep breath...
Walking sticks...Walking sticks......
One of my sensible, mature purchases has been a fold-up walking stick - for long standing sessions at choir rehearsals, and so on. Have just taken it for a garden walk, with Winnie my slow wobbly dog for company. We were checking out the freshly mown lawns and the roses.
Visions of unloveliness...Visions of unloveliness......
Aargh! A gentle early morning walk with dogs and camera. Visions of unloveliness when I looked down - swathes of old forget-me-nots. Aargh! Am definitely not taking a photograph of them!
Messy or busy?Messy or busy?...
Have done it again. Was out early with the camera and the dogs, and yet again the mess in my garden overshadowed the beauty. I wish this wouldn't happen. Perhaps it's a morning thing? Or is 'busy' a better word for 'messy'?
Growth and decay...Growth and decay......
Have just realised that the change-over of the seasons from spring to summer is here. The time when my garden experiences a rather torrid acceleration of growth and decay. Either, or, both at the same time. Aargh!
Away...Away......
I've been away for the weekend - enjoyed a sleep-over at my small friend's house with the big brown dogs. Noisy dogs! Great fun! We spent a lot of time watching the bumble bees slipping in and out of the foxgloves.
Pottering about...Pottering about......
Some mornings, when I should be gardening, I just potter about the house - doing the laundry, watering the patio pots, talking to the dogs about mu latest interest (the foothills of the Indian Himalayas), cataloguing yet more rose photographs...
Hot daysHot days...
Aha! Hot days - Finally it's summer, perhaps? I've got the watering hoses on, and have been filling and refilling the watering cans to keep the patio pots happy...
The singing season...The singing season......
It's a few days since I did any gardening, oops... The silly singing season has intervened, and I've been AWOL again, busy in my musical world. Sorry, garden. Tra-la-la. Knocked three more rehearsals and three more gigs off my music-to-do list. Four more gigs to go (not kidding!)
II'm back!...
It's a few days since I did any gardening, oops... The silly singing season has intervened, and I've been AWOL again, busy in my musical world. Sorry, garden. Tra-la-la. Knocked three more rehearsals and three more gigs off my music-to-do list. Four more gigs to go (not kidding!)
More hot days...More hot days......
Spending the whole day shifting hoses around, bucketing water on pots, and picking flowers for the house vases is a valid day in the garden? Maybe? Almost? Why not!
My poor garden!My poor garden!...
My poor dry garden! The front lawn has gone straw-brown. Even the weedy periwinkle is complaining. But lovely Non-Gardening Partner has checked out the big irrigation, fixed this and that, and it's going to whooshing water onto the garden for the next few nights.
A new cat?A new cat?...
A cat surprise - it seems that I now have three cottage cats : Minimus, my beautiful grey tabby, Speckles, a stray I have been feeding for three years, and a newcomer. Two nights ago a cat arrived on the cottage verandah...
Irrigating the garden...Irrigating the garden......
Worked long hours yesterday, rewarded with a wind-free night and the sound of the whooshy irrigation on the side of the cottage. Yippee for the big irrigation! There'd be no trees, hardly any green shrubs, and certainly no roses without it. Just tussock and dry paddock grasses. And weeds!
Moany, moany...Moany, moany......
Am ashamed when I read back over my latest garden journal pages. I am forever complaining. Moany, moany. If it isn't the old forget-me-nots then it's the heat. So? Would I really like to cancel summer?
Serious conversations...Serious conversations......
Hello to my lovely garden - nice to have a serious summer conversation with you. You obviously enjoyed the big irrigation whooshing around you last night! The serious watering regime has started.
A tidy mind, a tidy garden...A tidy mind, a tidy garden......
I have to garden all day today. I just have to. I have a three-pronged plan. OK, it's going in a list. A tidy mind, a tidy garden, and all that.
The colours of summer...The colours of summer......
Have just done a quick wander around with the camera and the dogs. Am loving the new colours of summer against the backdrop of greenery. The roses usually grab the limelight, but many of them have now finished their first flowering flush.
Nearly Christmas...Nearly Christmas......
It's nearly Christmas. Humph. My first Christmas present - a slight head cold and a cough. Gave myself a choice - back to bed to sulk and/or sleep, or gardening. Gardening won!
Christmas Eve 2024Christmas Eve 2024...
It's the morning of Christmas Eve. A summery if overcast morning. Should I clean the house for Christmas? So far I've wiped the kitchen counter and washed the cat bowls. Plans - to doodle around, maybe mop the bathroom floor, do my piano practice? Or go out for a swim and coffee with my friends, be sociable and all that?
Christmas Day 2024Christmas Day 2024...
Christmas Day! We are off this morning to visit family, and I am wearing a frock. Yes! A frock! And my new blue sandals that I found yesterday at the Op Shop. So clever and so easy to spend so little on clothes. Buying plants or gifting your money to others is much more fun.
Off for Rain...Off for Rain......
Rain is pouring down in bucketfuls. It's raining cats and dogs! Not that either of the dogs or any cats are (hopefully) getting wet. Lucky garden! My concrete cricketers have been off for rain for weeks - in fact, since the last time the back lawn was mowed. C'mon chaps. It's summer! The cricket season...
Slinky SummerSlinky Summer...
Summer slinks on. Funny how some abandoned areas of the garden look great, while others look - well, abandoned! A lot depends on a garden being in reach of the irrigation. Take Lychnis, for example, a grey leafed short lived perennial which I love...
Ending the year with a moan!Ending the year with a moan!...
Rip, rip, rip. Dig, dig, dig. Pull, pull, pull. I've been clearing more Campion and Alkanet out of the Hump Garden. It's such hard work. Sulk, sulk, sulk. I worked for about four hours, then ran out of puff, oomph, steam, energy, and inspiration. Came inside feeling very cross - how silly! My last moaning session for 2024, hee hee...
Top