Bursting with garden ideas...
Red and White Roses
December continues - I'm busy improving the soil, watering, and I'm bursting with garden ideas. Most involve buying new plants, or shifting existing plants around - not a good idea in the hot summer sun!
Wednesday 10th December
Today I spent ages dead-heading the roses. I put horse-poos and pea-straw on half of the Jelly Bean Border, and planted most of the red dahlias in the gaps. Then the southerly struck...
Thursday December 11th
Yippee! Today I finished putting the horse-poos and pea-straw on the Jelly Bean Border. I haven't actually done anything else - except shifting the hoses, and remembering to water the new Camellias (well, the Camellias in their new spot) and the glass-house tomatoes. I spent most of the day reading an Inspector Morse book outside under the big Gum tree. It's important to enjoy the summer garden. And the cricket is getting scary!
Friday December 12th
I'm sitting pre-gardening, wondering what I'll do first today. Today's major plan involves spending up LARGE on flaxes and grasses. I should remove the sillies - the Genista and Forsythia sitting in the house lawn. They are so scruffy for over ten months of the year. Trouble is that now they are about to depart Stephen says that he rather likes them. If I hadn't said anything he'd never have noticed. Hmm...
Upon reflection, I think I'm happy with the new Camellia spot. I don't like the two New Dawn roses which I planted along the fence by the washing line, though. And the entrance garden up the driveway needs 'shrubbing' and 'grassing' - I might clear it, get it ready for planting all those NEW PLANTS, hee hee...
Patio Step Roses
Saturday 13th December
Yesterday I weeded up the driveway while listening to dreadful post-mortems about the cricket on my cricket radio. Then I removed the two sillies (the Genista and the Forsythia), sawing at first and then hacking at the stumps with the axe. I cleared three barrowfuls of rubbish (created by them) from the surrounding grass. Looks better!
Today I planted annuals in the Driveway Border, and sorted out the stone edging. it looks much tidier. Then I picked some Compassion roses for the house. I trimmed the clump of Watsonias in the Island Bed - I can see them from the house. I actually don't like them very much - they are the normal bright pinks, quite big and coarse, and after flowering they look dreadful.
Sunday 14th December
I wonder if anyone will ever read this? I must remember to write about things that I like as well as things that I do. And I should write more details - even if they are negatives. Like the Chrysanthemum Peachy Cheeks, which is too scruffy. And the Petunias called Prime Time Blue which are such a cool colour - purple-blue. I've also been looking at old photographs of the gardens put to bed in the winter with pea-straw covering. I can't believe the garden growth gets so big in summer! It's as if the Catmint explodes.
Well, it's going to be a challenge levelling and semi-manicuring the lawn where those two silly shrubs used to be. Three more barrowfuls of rubbish came out today. I might need help. I'd like the posts to come out - will have to ask Stephen. Axe-Woman-Gardener massacres yellow spring shrubs. I know this is the wrong time of year but I am going to clear the ground, level it and fill grass seed in the gaps.
Praying Mantis basking on Bantry Bay
I will make a list - my brain is bursting with gardening ideas.
- Gardening Ideas
- Buy some coloured hybrid mountain flaxes.
One can go on the corner of the house patio garden as a permanent foliage feature. Another - in the Driveway Border?
- Investigate more shrubs.
Maybe some conifers? Eeek! Spring flowering shrubs would give nice colour before the roses kick in...
- 3. Buy a Cotinus, maybe.
- And a Ceanothus.
- BUY SOME GRASSES.
Should I shift the Bergenias by the septic tank? I have only just met them, so to speak, and have plonked them in full sun. Reading indicates that they may prefer some shade. Oh well. There are gaps in the JAM Garden - see, I do need more shrubs. Do I??? Or do I just need more YELLOW THINGS?
In the 'Winter Border' of the garden "The Vicarage" in East Ruston there are two cool grasses - a Carex Elata Aurea and a Pennisetum Alopecuroides. I suspect pennisetum grasses are not allowed in Canterbury, though I'm not sure. Anyway, I've seriously impressed myself by copying their proper names down.