Gardening Articles 2009
When I'm not gardening I'm writing about it, and 2009 will be no exception. I hope you enjoy my latest set of articles. There's always seems to be something new in the Moosey garden to twitter about.
Sometimes - just sometimes - I suspect I may have said it all before. Oops.
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Garden Awards - The Best of 2009...
- This isn't going to be one of those politically correct awards lists where everyone gets a prize, a certificate, or a mention. I'm toughening up, and there will be disappointments. The awards for the Best of the Moosey Gardening Year for 2009 are as follows. Enjoy!
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Getting the Garden Ready for Christmas...
- I've been busy 'getting the garden ready for Christmas'. So what exactly does this mean? It's midsummer, and I'm not dressing trees and hedges up with Christmas lights, or poking Santas on sticks into the soil...
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Good Rose Parenting...
- Being a rose parent is a funny business. There are so many detailed books telling you exactly what to do when, and what never to do, to turn your treasured rosy toddlers into tamed teenagers and thence into beautiful blooming adults.
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Visit to an Iris Nursery...
- A visit to an Iris Nursery with the local Garden club - what a wonderful way to spend a day off from the garden. The big bearded irises in my garden are just flowering... An iris nursery! Hee hee - I could buy some more.
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A Surfeit of Agapanthus...
- I am THE most successful species Agapanthus digger and shifter in the world - well, possibly in the 'www' world. But I might be the only mad gardener who thinks such an activity is worthy of being blogged about...
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Online Plant Auctions...
- Hee hee. I'm fast becoming a believer in the online plant auction. In my first week I bid for and won two beautiful pink peonies, twenty-one green Cabbage trees (don't worry - there's room for them all) and a sprawling rose which I think is Nozomi. I'm only a beginner, just learning.
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The Good Spring Gardener...
- What are the attributes of the Good Spring Gardener? Read on - see if you make the grade! Firstly, the Good Spring Gardener is a good 'noticer'. She (or he) sees and anticipates, checking the spring garden every day, noticing everything...
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Presenting The 2009 Seed Catalogue...
- Ah... My 2009 seed catalogue has arrived in the mailbox. Full colour, pictures of everything, over one hundred pages of tempting treats. I deserve this! I've been such a positive, non-grumpy winter gardener...
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Lies, Lies, and Garden Writers...
- My breakfast garden magazine has left me feeling rather fierce and furious. Honestly! Garden journalists! The things they say - and the things they miss out - about Amazonian lady gardeners.
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Winter Greens...
- I'm outside on THE day of the Winter Solstice, 2009, desperately searching for garden colour to photograph. I don't care how washed out the hue is - I'm craving the saturated pinks of summer and the reds of autumn. C'mon winter - show me a shade!
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New Garden Birdlife...
- New gardens in a new gardening country - new birdlife! I'm on holiday away from home, though some of the birds I've met before - hello, sparrows! Starlings - stop squabbling over the suet in that bird feeder! Crows - stop crowing!
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Garden Bloggers...
- Garden bloggers are mad, wonderful people. Surely the second best pleasure in life, after real gardening, is writing about it. And the third? Definitely reading what another mad gardener has written!
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Ellerslie Flower Show 2009...
- I'm not a good-time Flower Show-Girl. The few Garden Shows I've been to have felt a bit like a shopping mall on pension day, with queues of tired oldish people waiting to get into marquees. Speak for yourself, tired oldish Moosey!
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Bedding Flower Annuals...
- Web-Gardeners who tend a roses, perennials, and foliage type of garden still have a duty and responsibility to promote the flowery bedding annual. Indeed, those pretty patterns of colour can be exceedingly cheery.
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Busy Bumble Bees...
- Bumble bees in the Moosey Garden have a variety of food-flowers to keep them busy. And judging by the number of times a bee gets into a flower photograph, all is very well!
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What Are Your Plans for 2009?...
- So what are your plans for this year? asked an acquaintance whose call had interrupted my tired apres-gardening dreaming session. Aargh! Easiest to quote my New Years Resolutions, which were 'Playing the piano every day and paying attention to garden detail'.
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Daylilies...
- Daylilies - Hemerocallis. Some summers I'm merely cross with them. One summer I made plans for mass evictions. This summer I'm madly in love again! Gardeners can be so fickle sometimes...
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The Year That Was...
- I'm not giving out any personal New Years Honours this year. They end up going to the same contenders, anyway - I mean, who else but Rusty could possibly get the 'Best Dog' award? There is only one dog at Mooseys...