How about some gardening resolutions?
Happy New Year! Let's get straight to the point - how about some gardening resolutions? Same old, same old - stake the dahlias, weed every day, prune the shrubs after flowering, don't mulch your secateurs...
Always wear gardening gloves, don't cheat (I think that might mean something like don't get a third person to nasty-spray your roses, so you can still claim to be spray-free).
Summer Flowers
I think I'm on a roll here - might as well keep going! Water the vegetable garden, plan in advance if you require a thousand pansy seedlings, harvest and eat all beans grown, be sensible buying new roses, have a budget when you visit the nursery and stick to it, Stop digging new gardens...
Any gardeners who are a bit light on their resolutions can help themselves from the above - like weedy compost, it's free! The tricky part comes next - it's not the making, but the keeping. You have to nurture, feed and water, weed and prune your resolutions! Hee hee.
Weather Complaints
Now perhaps I could change my diary title? No longer Mooseys Gardening Journal, but Mooseys Weather Complaints Journal. Ask me what the last gardening task I did last year was? I can't remember - it rained and blustered for the final two days, and we had the log burner going each day. My greatest exercise was darting out in wet weather parka to feed the chooks.
Red Summer Roses
Today - a brand new year - and it doesn't feel much different. But dare I start the gardening year complaining about the inclement weather? Too right I can! Wearing thermal underwear in January in New Zealand just isn't done. And all the cats are so cold they try and sneak under the bed clothes. Cats - aargh! There are too many of you!
Yellow Spiky Dahlia
It's Cold!
I won't really be able to prepare a decent New years gardening list, either. I'm more interested in how many layers of warm clothing I should be wearing. It's not the rain, nor the cold temperatures, but the combination of both. Shivering in my glasshouse isn't an option - all the seedlings are out, and no self respecting gardener tidies and cleans up the pots in the height of summer!
Where's Summer Gone?
Anyway, Happy New Year! I'm off for a swim, then I'm meeting my seaside gardening friend for lunch. Tomorrow I'm off to the cricket in my down jacket and trousers, and taking umbrella, blankets, and thermos of hot soup. Welcome to summer! Hurray for summer! Summer fun in the summer sun! Yippee!
Tuesday 2nd January
No gardening done as yet this year. My merino sheep quartet is all bleating (Haru the fat pet lamb and her most peculiar escort of two wethers and Charles the ram). They all stand pointing the same way - towards the Moosey office window - and stare intently up at me.
The Sheep :- It may seem boring to you, but it's an amazing day in the life of a sheep, when all go down the side driveway and change paddocks. Yippee!
George, my earliest pet sheep, sounds as if he's gargling or baa-ing underwater. Clear the throat, George - sheep are really daft sometimes! Anyway, these four will be off down the back paddock, just as soon as they've had their - ahem - bottoms checked and cleaned. I hope that Haru stays tame and friendly.
And no gardening will be done today, for I am about to buy a box of cherries from the orchardist down the road, pack my day-pack, and head off to watch a whole day's cricket. I'm taking my book, and a print out of the Moosey Garden Tour directories. At least I can tidy up the virtual garden. Byeee.
Wednesday 3rd January, Late...
And no gardening was done today either - but there was much bush walking - five hours wiggling around and around and up and down in the Mount Oxford forest. The native plants, having been rained on rather a lot lately, were looking beautifully green. There was much mud on the track - and on my boots and legs.
Thursday 4th January - Finally, a Gardening Day
It's finally a gardening day. Wow - what is that strange light, shining on all my flowers, trees, shrubs and lawns? It's - no, it can't be - yes it is - SUNLIGHT! So when I come back from swimming with boring house supplies like hand-soap and shower scrubbing stuff and... Stop right there! No need to make a supermarket list - this is a gardening journal.
Rosy in the Rain
The new garden chairs, expertly water blasted, are almost dry enough to be painted. Lawns, edges, weeds, and rose dead-heads await. I am going to garden all day until I drop.
Later...
I weeded! For ages, I weeded in the Pond Paddock - my first weeding of the new year. And I planted out some more of my nursery plants. Now, when a tired gardener (probably me) sits on my newest garden bench (not the chairs, not the chairs) they will get wafts of fragrance from three lemon Verbenas, and they will be surrounded by pink daisies - well, that's if and when my cuttings get growing. Nice!