Finish what I started?
Have just had the most scary gardening idea, which fills me with dread. It makes me want to curl up under the bedcovers and refuse to come out!
I make a list of all the things I've started this year and not finished. Like weeding the garden underneath the washing line (have just hung my washing out, bad move). Or chopping down the green flax I started on yesterday. Or properly clearing out the Stumpy Garden (started a few days ago, gave up because there were lots of oak tree seedlings and I needed the appropriate tools). Or weeding the end of the Hump Garden (started last week, stopped because of thunder, fair enough).
The Phormium is Gone...
And then I finish them, one by one. Aargh!
Seven hours later...
Oh Really? I decided to ignore the finishing idea. Since when did I start listening to me? Instead, I spread the bags of compost on the Herb Spiral Garden, then totally dismantled a large, ugly Phormium near the Pergola.
It was breaking apart, too old, its flowering stems too heavy. It was definitely ready for one of my fence-line mess heaps.
Took all day...
This took me all day, using my sharp little steak knife (the perfect tool) and the grunty big axe (to break up the roots). So the Phormium gone, roots and all, and all the pieces have been 'processed'. I am soooooo proud - I actually started and finished something in one gardening session. Woo hoo! This might even be a first.
When big brown Escher lived here, this was one of his most favourite places to dig enormous holes. I reckoned that he could probably smell a rat living underground in the Phormium's roots - Escher's nose was superb!
Escher the dog :- Escher's nose was always getting him into trouble when he lived here.
Well, today I found ratty's desiccated corpse, and the remains of an ancient nest. Darling Escher! Your nose was right. Well done, beautiful big brown dog.
I have a planting plan for this small area of garden : cover it with compost, then 'rose' it up, shifting in two Zepherine Drouhan roses (unhappy in the Septic Tank garden) and two Mrs Oakley Fishers (ditto, rescued from other unsuitable rose areas). That's for another wonderful day.