Maturing?
I think I might be maturing and improving as a gardener. I can't remember ever before having such a responsible August, actually finishing things off, and doing lots of really good garden maintenance.
The Wattle Woods
Monday 18th August
Whenever before have my dearly beloved variegated pelargoniums been repotted properly? Dead canes pruned (and sawed) out of the middle of the Moosey roses? Unwanted seedling Pittosporums removed from here there and everywhere - before they get too big? Little pansy seedlings rescued from paths and planted carefully on the edge of the garden? I could go on for ever...
Miniature Daffodils
Today the weather is weird - it's trying to be nasty, grey and stormy, but then the sun wins through and all is calm. I've been pottering around, mainly pruning and trimming in the Jellybean Border. I don't talk about this garden area much - this is very obvious from the scruffy internal state it's in. The Jellybean Border was I guess my very first 'shrubbery', and now the plants are over head-high. Hmm...
Colours...
I've also potted up blue Scabious cuttings (so very useful for border edges) in the glass-house. I've weeded, planted a variegated Caryoptris and a hardy perennial Salvia, and shovelled mulch onto more of the Shrubbery paths.
Apres-Gardening Already?
I'm tempted to go apres-gardening and play some Schubert (he's the flavour of the month, piano-wise). And I need to take some garden photographs of colours - yellow miniature daffodils, pink Camellias, the first white Camellia flower, white Honesty, ruby red Hellebores...
Choices, choices. When in doubt, do a bit of everything I reckon...
Creamy-White Camellias
Tuesday 19th August
Hmm - it's slightly snowing - not properly, just lightly 'flurrying'. But wet, wet, wet... No real gardening today - might be a good time to go virtual garden visiting. I could, of course, visit the Moosey glass-house, full of spring hatching plans - and plants!
- 'Conifers are sometimes worth it!'
- -Moosey Words of Wisdom.
I love my August garden. I've always thought that pre-spring was a bit dull, colourwise - I was wrong! Top marks must go to my Hellebore patch, filled with dusky red, pink, and white flowers. Second place goes to my assorted conifers (I shudder to admit this) - by default I grow a lot of unknowns, light green and tawny shades. They might sound in colour, but they look fresh and spring-beautiful. Conifers are sometimes worth it!
Wednesday 20th August
What a beautiful day! Cold beginnings, in the classic Canterbury tradition, followed by clear blue skies (Beijing, be impressed!) and wonderful sun. I gardened happily in the Wattle Woods as my sports radio re-ran commentaries of Olympic athletics races and the like. I finished by digging out overgrown grasses, shifting Renga Renga into the gap, replanting a Bergenia clump, and finally planting a bucket-bound bronze flax.
Tabby in the Tangle!
And then I burnt all my rubbish. The Wattle Woods are strewn with bark and leaves from the nearby gum trees - weeding and clearing produces barrowfuls of dry, combustible stuff, and eucalpyt debris does won't decompose - well, not in my lifetime.