Reconnecting...
Good morning to my garden, and my inner gardener. Time you were both reconnected. It's a coolish but sunny day, no wind, and I have no commitments. Yeay! It's merely a question of what to do first. What, indeed? When in doubt, write a list.
- Plant new roses and dahlias by pergola.
- Clean up flax leaf piles from back lawn.
- Dead-head more dahlias and roses.
Pretty Dahlia
I have two more general ideas. One is fairly functional. How about a couple of hours bonfiring dry gum tree mess? There's no fire ban yet. And no wind.
Free choice...
Two is much nicer, involving an element of free choice. How about putting all tools in the wheelbarrow and finding a completely random area? Then sitting down to weed and trim, etc.
Five hours later...
Ha! I've done everything I listed. Have made great progress. Filled the bin with wet flax leaves, and cut down some more flax stalks that were causing their parent plants to split apart. Then I sat down and weeded the edge of the Stables garden. All these little details matter.
After coming inside for an iced water I collected two more loads of dry grasses for the bonfire. Grabbed more armfuls of gum tree bark from under the hedge by Duck Lawn.
Cream Delight Phormium
A huge year for the flaxes...
Trimmed yet more Phormium flower stalks. All my flaxes have had a huge flowering year (with lots and lots of heavy flowering stems), and several more do need a serious trim. Aargh!
Canoe adventures...
After a light evening meal I continued my journey across Quebec and Labrador with a groovy canoeist and film maker. It's such an amazing adventure, solo for 42 days - a privilege to be sharing it with him. I'm just a gardener, have never ever been in a canoe let alone travelled across lakes and rivers in one.
The Labrador landscapes are absolutely mesmerising. The creatures he sees (black bears, caribou, lynx, moose) are amazing. But I simply can't begin to imagine what the bugs would be like. In my own garden just one lone mosquito (unusual not to get a few more) has found me so far this summer.