Weeding comes to mind...
Puppy on a Dog-Path
All of a sudden August is nearly over, and that definitely means spring is near. The much blessed pink flowers will again fill my garden, and the greenery will grow large and lush. I need to be on top of my gardening game - weeding comes to mind...
Monday 22nd August
And watering! The second Moosey Camellia to flower (by the glass-house) looks dreadful, and is dropping its droopy flowers after about a day of blooming. Today I will run the hoses in the Wattle Woods - I promise to shift them every hour.
The variegated mallows (weeds, but tall and lovely) are at their most beautiful now, and the red rhododendrons must soon be flowering. Yippee for the Bergenias - these hard working foliage plants are starting to do their pink thing. Pink flowers! Aargh!
Rose Pruning!
And finishing the rose pruning! Last night I had a gardener's nightmare (well, possibly a wishful-thinking dream) that I found a whole new rose garden, full of bushes starting to sprout and shoot.
So why did I spend four hours yesterday digging a totally new piece of garden, with all this on-going maintenance waiting to be finished? Will I ever finish anything? I will take a deep breath, and write a boring no-nonsense list. Then I will action all items, in order. Sorry, Rusty puppy - neither of us is allowed to do any random digging today.
Important Things to Do Today (No Digging Allowed)
- Run the hoses on the Wattle Woods.
- Spread manure on the Wattle Woods.
- Check that all roses are pruned.
- Make list of roses, noting any problems.
- Shift one Calamagrostis grass out of garden by woodshed - where to?
- Trim Miscanthus Zebrinus in the Apple Tree Garden.
- Burn rose prunings.
- Weed in two different locations.
If nothing else, my web-master will be pleased with me today - he's a sucker for lists!
Grass Seedheads in the Sun
Five Hours Later...
Right. It's five hours later and I have totally run out of oomph. I know I should be proud of staying focussed and knocking off three quarters of the items on the list. But the more I've gardened today the more I've seen that needs doing - like a never-ending list - aargh!
Pink Rose :- This is one of the pink climbing roses I grow - its name is Bantry Bay.
However, there has been much pruning, and two unknown pink roses rescued from extreme overcrowding are soaking in a bucket of water. The hoses are still going. I should feel really good!
I start the gardening day happy that I am the head-and-only-gardener, and end the day thinking about hiring a troupe of under-gardeners. Or perhaps one hard-working gentlewoman to come four afternoons a week and weed? Hmm... When will I actually get everything finished? Aargh! Don't listen to these moans and groans - some gardeners just don't know how lucky they are! I am now off to visit my seaside gardening friend (in my pink apres-gardening shirt and clean styly jeans) - this is my reward for working hard.
Wednesday 24th August
Aargh! What a morning! First an awful dream with the Moosey neighbour telling me off about the new garden digging - my inventive covering of mulch (some bags of old oak leaves) was poisonous, and would compact the soil. It needed to be dug in! The weight of a thousand dreadful gardening mistakes descended on my shoulders as she (a very nice neighbour, actually!) faded out of the scene.
Awake and feeling relatively hopeless, I wandered out on the balcony to greet the new gardening day. Aargh! There were remains of Silver Astelia strewn all over the lawn - the results of a ferocious puppy-battle with a scary enemy pot-plant. My poor, defenceless Silver Astelia, snoozing in its plastic bed by the big gum tree wouldn't have stood a chance!
Rusty behind the Gate
Puppy further disgraced himself by pushing Mugsy the cat off her breakfast of yummy sardines. Now he smells bad (fishy). What else can go wrong? The new alarmingly green teapot I bought only yesterday will probably dribble, and the Moosey House Guest (who demands perfection in teapot design) will complain...
The Silver Astelia Lives to Fight Another Day...
Today I will only regain my composure (and that I-am-so-very-lucky feeling) with a lot of manual labour, focused weeding, and taking puppy on the longest walk imaginable. I do have some chores - I need to pick up some compost, and some pea-straw from the depths of the back paddock. I have to repot the remains of one beautiful Silver Astelia. This super-stylish plant fills courtyard pots of the rich and famous (well, I think it still does).
The weather is still mild, and the garden looks hopeful - beautiful ambience for the non-hay-fever-suffer (there's pine pollen everywhere for the not-so-lucky). It might be a good day to finish pruning the roses and start planting the new climbers!
Humph... Some Hours later...
What else can go wrong, did I ask? Just before setting out on the longest dog-walk ever, the phone rang - I was needed (if possible) at work, immediately - blast! And I have extra work for the next two days. I'm shutting my eyes and visualising a trailerful (or even a truckload) of soil conditioner/compost.