Gardening Articles 2011
Another gardening year, during which I will be oh so busy with new ideas, new gardens, and lots of exciting things to write about. Forgive me if there's a slight amount of repetition. I look at it this way - I'm still in the same garden, so there's bound to a bit of the same! Here are my gardening articles for the year 2011.
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Concrete Garden Cricketers...
- I've just rescued the oddest group of concrete garden ornaments from the local recycling store. They're not gnomes, flamingos, or frogs. Gardeners of a non-British-Empire persuasion might even have trouble identifying them. They're cricketers. Howzat?
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Freedom Gardening...
- I like the way I've been gardening recently. It's simple - I'm not allowed to write any scary lists of things that desperately need doing. And as a result I'm happier, and work longer, more varied hours. My garden benefits! Who would have though it so simple?
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Peak Season Garden Tours...
- It's the early-summer Garden Tour season, and I've been to my second one in three weekends. This was a serious tour - proper open gardens were featured, properly designed, with proper gardeners. Oooh! I'd be seeing how the 'other half' gardened...
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Rhododendrons or Roses? ...
- The late spring Moosey garden is bright and sunny, and there's a very unfortunate competition for the Head Gardener's attention. The mid-season rhododendrons are up against the first of the many roses. Guess who wins? Rhododendrons or roses?
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Gone AWOG - Absent Without Garden...
- During my recent holiday in Rarotonga I went totally AWOG - absent without garden. I wanted to live totally in the present, enjoying the island, taking lots of photographs.
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Gardening Choices...
- Choices, choices... Energetic gardeners with loads of gardening time on their hands are forever making choices. Which tree? Oh dear. Or perhaps a flowering shrub? Where to site a Lavender garden? And should this rose be shifted? Aargh!
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My Mad May Roses...
- My Mad May roses have been just brilliant. At the end of every gardening day I've done a grateful sweep with my camera in hand. So many beautiful roses are flowering! Don't be fooled - for me, May is just a few weeks short of the winter solstice.
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Three Seasons in Pond Cottage...
- Pond Cottage, the cosy little 'cottage in the woods' of my childhood dreams, is three-seasons old, and is now enjoying its first autumn. Hugged all year round by evergreens, it now looks out over a dazzling autumn display of golds and reds.
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A Green Goddess in the Garden...
- A plant or shrub needs a certain style to be called a Green Goddess. This is a strongly evocative name - with its link to all things classical, and organic. I'm immediately seeing a beautiful, womanly plant with a deeply spiritual attitude.
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Moosey's Facebook and Twitter...
- At the time of writing these words I've been on Facebook and Twitter for almost one week. So what have I, Moosey, learnt about becoming a social networking gardener?
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Best of 2010 Garden Awards...
- Gardeners are always looking backwards and forwards at the same time. We can easily visualise having even more beautiful daylilies flowering, while remembering how poorly they bloomed last year. So it's easy in the New Year (2011) to wistfully evaluate the old (2010).
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Smart Resolutions for the New Year...
- Never, ever chat with a mature well-trained teacher (even if he or she is on holiday) about making and breaking New Year's Resolutions. My mistake, as I introduced the topic with a friend while we aquajogged in the swimming pool on New Year's Eve.