Feels different...
Summer gardening feels different - there's a greater sense of partnership between person and garden. All my hard work weeding and planting has paid off! The Moosey gardens are actually looking really good!
Mugsy the Cat
December 1st
The first day of December - I have got the new puppy up (it's 6 am). The early morning house gardens look magnificent (peaceful? beautiful?).
Reality Check - the lawns are mowed, the edges are done, there is no wind, the new puppy is happy, Taj-dog the old is happy, the cats are happy. Health Check - feeling good. Family Check - love them all. Rose Check - Pink Iceberg over the water race is flowering. Geoff Hamilton nearby is going really well. The big pink peonies are brilliant. So many good things happening!
Head Check - oh boy did I do the right thing in semi-retiring! I've never for one moment lost my will and passion to garden. It's almost been one whole year now.
Immediate Day Check - the garden area at the end of the Dog-Path garden is littered with out-of-date forget-me-nots, and a few other weeds. The remaining flowering annuals need to move in. Hoses can run for a while, too - OK, it rained well last week, but this gives a false sense of security.
Rugosa Rose Check
Rugosa Check - hopeless! Belle Poitevine, Roseraie de l'Hay and a possible Scabrosa identified, but the head is just as muddled.
Roses By the House
Off to the Rose Gardens
Compulsory Socialisation Check - today my walking friend and I are revisiting the Mona Vale Rose Gardens. We will be walking briskly this time, not stopping and fluffing around taking old-lady rose photographs. Let's hear it for the Moosey roses!
My goodness that's enough checking! Time to play with the new puppy, have a cup of tea, enjoy the rooster crowing from the mercifully distant Pond Paddock, and contemplate the first day of December - possibly the first official day of summer?
Later...
I did lots of weeding and edges. Rusty the puppy fell in the water race (second time) and his little legs couldn't quite get him up the bank and out. We will have to take care until those legs grow. Of course Taj-Dog didn't help by standing in the water watching. Rusty has had a very energetic day.
Unknown David Austin Rose
There's a noticeable increase in the amount of shade in the Dog-Path Garden this summer - the red beech tree (for example) has grown quite a lot, and the other trees are towering higher and higher. One of the Cordylines is flowering high in the sky above the Pittosporums. The Dog-Path Garden will soon turn into a woodland. Then where will all the roses go?
Footnote to the day - our brisk walk to the rose gardens was nice. But this time I thought the Mona Vale Gardens were really small!
Dutch Irises
Thursday 2nd December
December definitely has a 'stop working so hard - start relaxing' feel to it. Traditionally it's been when my work has stopped and there's been a need to wind down. This year feels the same - I start thinking that there's nothing to do except find a shady tree and read. Oh but there is!
Lychnis :- I grow white Lychnis and magenta Lychnis, and a few shades in-between.
Aargh! The Wattle Woods stream has stopped flowing again. My irises and aquilegias are almost over. The Lychnis is just starting to flower - so Lychnis is the flowering herald of December! - I'd never really noticed this before.
Today I'll try and finish my garden maintenance in the Dog-Path Garden. I must plant out my remaining flowering annuals. What is the point of investing time into their early nurturing, only to lose interest now? Seems highly silly - I'm totally bored with the process but I know I'll enjoy the results. Today I will also play with puppy, and do some watering. And I must take my pots seriously and water them. Perhaps I could do this every evening with a glass of wine, to get into some sensible routine...
Photographs of the New Puppy (Rusty) Officially Requested!
I have just received a formal directive from London. Ha! Just you wait! No more restraint - I will happily puppy-up my garden photographs.
Rusty the New Puppy
Puppy, As Requested
There will be whole new pages devoted to Rusty the new puppy - Puppy in the Peonies, Water Features and Puppy, Puppy's Favourite Plants, and so on... Hee hee...
Mid-Afternoon...
Aargh! Summer gardening! Too hot to garden (between the hours of 10am and 3pm, that is). Watering only, and sitting in the shade reading - that's what summer gardening is all about. I'm off to turn the hoses on again.
Friday 3rd December
Aargh! Another hot blustery day. The wind wasn't as bad as yesterday. I only did two hours work, mainly weeding and watering. Same old problems - the hot dry wind is so unkind to the garden. I haven't done much, so I won't say much.