10 Years of Garden Journals

A 'Real' Garden Journal from September 1999

Stephen and I moved here to our West Melton, New Zealand property in October 1994. I knew very little about gardening, I didn't know about perennials, I'd never met mulch. I assumed that the previous owners had chosen exactly the right plants had put them in exactly the right places.

The plantings consisted of blobby shaped shrubs and conifers, with coarse bark chips covering the spaces between. There were also scruffy shrubs planted in the middle of the house lawns. Some scatty red tulips popped up in the Island Bed and promptly blew down. A yellow forsythia in the middle of the front lawn bloomed for a week then lapsed into a scruffy mess.

Stephen bought me a bow saw, a wheelbarrow, and a pump for the garden hoses. I started slowly by pulling all the blobby shrubs out of the lawn, and the unattractive ones out of the garden. I brought in roses and perennials. Stephen found a source of free horse-poos around the corner. The norwesters blew. The dog and the cats settled in, the rabbit population decreased, and I became an obsessive gardener.

The Head Gardener

My early journal consisted of pages of advice copied from library books, and lists of stuff. When I started gardening here I thought I had to do things right: I thought there was a "right time" to shift plants, a "right time" to spread horse-poos, a "right colour" to plant with something else etc. I also thought I had to design things on paper and draw intelligent plans. Where did I read that?

Gradually I became a bolder gardener. The right type of manure for the garden was the free horse-poos just around the corner. The right time to spread it on was when it suited me. The right plants were often the free ones given to me by my friends, or the ones in the bargain bin, or the ones I could easily propagate. Intelligent plans came by feel - they didn't need paper.

Garden Writing

I took the creation of my early lists very very seriously. They usually consisted of detailed and highly impractical, expensive plants to somehow source and purchase. Later the lists became more down to earth, consisting mainly of things to do: entries like get horse-poos, spread horse-poos, get more horse-poos, etc.

My journal proper started in December 1997. In the beginning the entries are a bit erratic but by mid 1999 I was dutifully recording every gardening moment. There are photographs throughout the journal to stop it getting too boring.

Eleven Years of Garden Writing

2008 Garden Journal

My journal for 2008 follows, with a warning - there are heaps more pages, and the gardening details are much more detailed. Eek!

2007 Garden Journal

I'm back for yet another year. How many shovel-fuls of new garden will be dug? Or car-loads of new plants procured? And will the Moosey rose population reach three hundred? One thing is for sure - I'll let everyone know, as I write up my eleventh gardening journal. Read on...

2006 Garden Journal

It's quite simple, really. I am still here. My garden is still here. I am still obsessively gardening. And every day, faithfully, I am writing all about it in my journal!

2005 Garden Journal

Will my garden journal for 2005 contain even more detail than past years? When will I run out of things to say? When will the Moosey Garden finish expanding and reach some natural equilibrium? Pressing questions...

2004 Garden Journal

2004 is the very first year I am a semi-retired person. I will be able to garden every day of the year. Mooseys will be transformed into the most amazing, well cared-for garden - Eek! What happens if I get sick of it by March? We'll see...

2003 Garden Journal

2003 starts out as any normal year, but ends in triumph, as I become a retired person, ready to try my hands at full-time gardening. There's an odd twist healthwise, as I discover I'm not superwoman. The garden is, of course, completely oblivious to all this drama.

2002 Garden Journal

Weather, weeds, edges, and plans for retirement seem to dominate 2002. As usual I get far too busy when the garden needs me most. The garden at Mooseys hardly notices - as usual, it has a life of its own.

2001 Garden Journal

The 2001 gardening year seems to be full of new plants. Armies of rhododendrons and armfuls of roses keep on appearing, and the garden of course has to expand to accommodate them all.

2000 Garden Journal

It may be the new millennium, but the year 2000 is just a normal gardening year. The garden keeps expanding, and I am definitely going through my stone edging phase.

1999 Garden Journal

I don't seem to write very much about the year 1999, but there are huge changes on the property, with many trees being felled. The old gorse hedge over the water race is cut down and burnt, and the long thin paddock by the water becomes available for development.

1998 Garden Journal

The 1998 journal contains very random writings. These were the days when I tended to scribble lists in notebooks and then promptly lost them. I was definitely in my growth phase as a gardener - not totally sure of things, still trying to do what the sensible gardening books said.

1997 Garden Journal

In December 1997 the first of the Moosey Gardening Journals was written. Words were scribbled in the back of an old school exercise book. It was fun writing down tasks accomplished, and bossy lists of things to do.