Gardening Articles 2007
I've nearly reached the tenth anniversary of garden writing, and still seem to have far too much to say. Gardening can get very repetitive - I hope this doesn't happen to my 2007 gardening articles!
Speaking of repetition, I am allowed to write my yearly 'Have I Got Too Many Roses?' article - though one simple word would answer this question! And gardeners who write about their gardening year are also allowed to buy new garden seats, and shredders, and heaps of new plants. Hee hee. What a great excuse! Enjoy!
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The Best of 2007...
- It must a sign of the Head Gardener's advancing years. I've been looking back sentimentally over 2007 to hunt out the highs and low of the last gardening year - to reminisce, and hand out awards for 'The Best of 2007'.
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Iris Flower Gallery...
- My big bearded irises have put on a spectacular show this year - well, most of them have! They've popped up here, they've popped up there, planted in dozens of different garden places.
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Town and Country Roses...
- The Timaru Rose Festival is held annually at the end of November. This year I allowed myself time off from the Moosey garden to visit some rosy town and country gardens.
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The Sounds of Music...
- The gardens are alive... with the sounds of music... The Moosey Garden is hopefully to be visited by a group of musical ladies. My choir is touring the garden for its end-of-year Christmas break-up.
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Dunedin Rhododendron Festival - 2...
- In 2007 twenty-two Dunedin gardens declared themselves open - each with one or two compulsory rhododendrons, in order to fit the criteria of this festival. Some were on the gently hilly peninsula, some were smaller and suburban, and some were further south on the Taieri Plains.
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Dunedin Rhododendron Festival - 1...
- Do I need my coat? No dear - this garden's got a microclimate. Ha! I am with a busload of wise women, and we are in Dunedin, New Zealand, for its famous Rhododendron Festival.
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A Well Defined Garden...
- I'm not impressed with my old Chambers dictionary! It defines a garden as follows: a piece of ground on which flowers, etc., are cultivated; a pleasant spot. Pleasant spot! I should jolly well think so, after all the weeding, planting, digging...
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Singing the Garden Blues...
- The colour blue has such a bad reputation. In the world of popular music it signifies sadness, as in 'singing the blues'. Talk about the 'Garden Blues' and non-gardening friends start worrying. But, like most gardeners, they make me very, very happy!
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Garden Club Spring Trip...
- I am off to visit four spring gardens in the country - not too far out of town, just a pleasant drive away. Everything has been organised by my local Garden Club. Yippee! Will I last the distance? A whole day off looking at other gardens...
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Dream Gardens...
- This all started with a book - the scariest gardening book I've ever held in my hand. Why on earth is this? Because of the title - 'Dream Gardens' - and the fact that the book is thick, with lots of pictures on every page.
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Sneaky Spring...
- It's sneaky spring - quick! Make sure you look up and down, and take photographs, and enjoy - before the wind blows all the cherry blossom off, and the warmth in the garden gets too much greenery going.
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More Water Features Please...
- I'm the sort of gardener who always wants more. More plants - easy! Just zoom off to a nursery and flash the Moosey wallet. More borders - easy too, just start energetically digging. Now I'm getting greedy - I want more water features.
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Gardens of Plockton...
- Plockton, on the west coast of Scotland, is the perfect base for an older-lady garden-tourist visiting the Highlands. Only intrepid grey-haired adventurers stay here - the road is not suitable (too narrow) for buses and coaches.
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Late Roses...
- Three weeks to go until the mid-winter solstice - that's the shortest Moosey day, if not the coldest. My glass-house is already full, sheltering half-hardy perennials and succulents. My roses, however, are still in brilliant bloom.
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Rude Gardening Words...
- There are many rude gardening words, though you won't find any youngsters looking them up in a dictionary and sniggering. There are rude nouns, rude adjectives, and truckloads of rude verbs. Read on, if you dare...
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One Day in Autumn...
- It's important that the last day of April should be a serious gardening day. One day in the life of the autumn garden, and lady gardener - a perfect excuse to load the page with autumn leaf pictures.
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Seeing Red...
- I never wear red, apart from a groovy pair of red plastic shoes - a Christmas present, perfect gardening footwear for weeding the water race. Here's a toast to all the other, non-plastic red things in the Moosey Garden.
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Cactus Collections...
- I don't do cacti. I was dragged out to be a cactus advisor once, when Web-Master son bought his little London cuties. But I didn't have a clue. What makes a cactus memorable? Does the flower colour matter? Or the spikes?
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What Counts in Your Garden?...
- Descriptions of gardens are often full of impressive arithmetic. This garden has over three hundred roses, that garden has an avenue of thirty one maples and over eighty different fuchsias... So what counts in your garden?
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A Self Seeding Puzzle...
- It's late summer, and I'm doing the rounds, chopping and trimming back yet another variety of self seeding plant. And I'm quietly wondering why I only take proper notice of such plants when they're past their use-by-date - I'm always missing out!
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Moosey Living...
- Who says a humble home grown garden with cherished cats, a dodgy dog, puffy-chested poultry and a garrulous gardener can't compete in the global lifestyle market? Even without a TV show, Moosey Living is quietly making its mark!
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2007 New Year's Honours List...
- The Moosey New Year's Honours List for 2007 is finally out. There are some new faces in this year's line up, while a couple of old garden friends climb the ladder towards their knighthoods.
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Moosey Garden Calendar...
- What do gardeners make for their friends and relations at Christmas time, when the idea is to make meaningful gifts, created out of love, costing only time? Ha! Colour calendars of scenes from their gardens! A brilliant idea!