Make a list!
Non-Gardening-Partner
Ha! My favourite non-canine garden helper will become available this weekend, and the weather forecast is good. I have lots and lots of fringe-gardening jobs for him - where to start? Aha! Make him a list!
Friday 7th December
My pond is looking better already. I've also worked out something which will be self-evident to builders of reflection ponds - and all other vaguely scientific folk. Plants don't have to be right by the water to have a reflection. Oh dear - garden designers will despair. Yesterday I flattened a waterside path and started building up the bank of fortified 'soil' behind the pond. My two new rhododendrons (others may, at thirty percent discount sale price, be soon joining them) will be planted as soon as NGP (Non-Gardening-Partner) returns from Australia.
Plans for NGP
It will be an extremely busy weekend as NGP catches up on his fringe-gardening chores. He will chainsaw the remains of the weedy self-sown pond trees - after he's mown all the lawns, and before he starts the shredding (see next paragraph). The lawns haven't been touched for two weeks, making my garden borders look even scruffier than they actually are.
Our neighbour has kindly offered to help NGP clear the tree-mess - his shredder is sooooooo much bigger than ours. So I have booked him in for tomorrow morning at first light.
Willian Lobb Rose
Today I think I'll have a wander-with-gloves-on sort of garden day. I'll take the wheelbarrow and stop randomly. For every Aquilegia I cut down there'll be a nearby foxglove to enjoy. There's a 'purpleness' over a lot of the borders, sunny and woodland, and my foxgloves are totally responsible. I love them.
Saturday 8th December
+5First Rusty the dog is going to the vet - he has a sore paw, probably a grass-seed stuck between his dog-toes, and the vet definitely has the tweezer knack. And then - who knows!
Rusty the Dog
Much, Much Later...
It's one of those endless sunny summer days. I've done heaps of gardening, I've fallen asleep in a chair, I've had the longest shower to wake myself up - and still there's time (and light) to do more.
Dog Bulletin
Rusty the hop-along dog is overweight by about four kilos, so I have put him on a strict dog diet. No toast! No dinner plate licking! He goes to the dog groomer next week to be clipped - I am looking forward to seeing the real Rusty underneath all his messy fur!
He is taking antibiotics for his paw, from which the embedded object (almost certainly a grass-seed) will be removed early next week - unless it removes itself first
The lawns are mowed - so now I need to trim the edges. A pile of pine tree mess has been shredded - this could be spread onto the garden somewhere. And my hoses need shifting. I've spent most of the day doing 'big' weeding - pulling out huge clumps of old forget-me-nots and honesty plants, even some wrongly-placed purple foxgloves. I've cleared out rows of silver beet gone to seed, stripping off all the leaves for my hens.
It's strangely silent outside. NGP has sneaked off somewhere. But wait - three new ewe lambs from the farm down the road are joining the flock. Maybe that's what he's up to. Haru my pet lamb is finally putting on weight (young merinos can look quite scrawny).
Oops...
Oops... Confessions of a random gardener. The Birthday Rose Garden, which was created for Daughter of Moosey and thus is technically not mine, has 'lost' one of its standard olive trees. A spur-of-the-moment decision, made as I was wheeling my tools down the grass path past roses and peonies, made for sound aesthetic reasons - and I've been thinking about it for months...
Peony and Salvia
Random Gardening Questions
And now some random questions: Would I like to return to the rhododendron nursery sale and buy any more shrubs? And if so, would I like a variegated Tulip tree? Where on earth could I plant that? And can I get NGP to collect a big bale of pea-straw, and some horse manure - as well as shredding, chain-sawing, and picking up new sheep?
Sunday 9th December
Earlier this morning Rusty the dieting dog sneaked out and cleaned up the cats breakfast. Ha! Vigilante Moosey, ever alert, is on his case - only one dog-biscuit now for supper.
Right. Action. Sunhat and sunblock on, new gardening shoes on (laces tied up properly). Cricket radio located, ditto edging shears. I am off outside to do some groovy summery gardening. I am full of energy and optimism, nothing is really sore, it's summer, it's nearly Christmas, and my garden is full of beautiful flowers, shrubs, birds, animals, and insects.
Histeria the Tabby Cat
The big irrigation ran last night on the house gardens. There's not a puff of wind. The new ewe-lambs are here, and NGP is being really nice and garden-helpful. And I keep meeting lots of ladybirds on my roses - munch those aphids! What a beautiful day - c'mon, cats, let's go outside! Four snoozing cats on the dining room table aren't quite taking notice of me!
Monday 10th December
It's gently raining - a great time to take stock of my rosy garden. There is much white-and-pinkness as my mainly pink roses show off their flowers. I'm nearly finished trimming down the aquilegias - stems and leaves, so they'll produce beautiful new ferny growth.
Pink and White
Yesterday I was really really good. I helped with the chain-sawing, I sorted gum and pine branches into piles, I weeded and watered - and had time to sit on the lawn to read. Instead of filling up myself with ice-cream and fizzy drink for afternoon tea I went off to two nurseries, and filled up the car with bargains.
Compensation for the Birthday Rose Garden
I have offered a home in the Birthday Rose Garden to two new un-named bargain bin David Austin roses, as compensation for the chopping down of one of the olive trees. I have two purple daisies, two pink flowering Escallonias, and an upright Rosemary. There were rows and rows of English lavenders in pots - I was so tempted by the rows of English Lavender - it is the lavender buying season...
13,879 Garden Steps...
And I wore my new pedometer, which only fell off once, to record how many steps a busy gardener does in a normal day's work. 13,879 steps!
Good morning to Percy my 'gingerest' cat, with the fullest tummy, who has languidly flopped on my lap for his apres-breakfast snooze. Yesterday I watched the two ginger boys play-fighting in slow motion - Fluff-Fluff the fluffy, gentle giant, Percy darker, leaner, with deep amber eyes - what a sight!
PInk Grootendorst Roses
And later, when I was watering some sad Pink Groodendorst roses near the hen house, one of my bellbirds came within a foot of me to drink nectar from a flax flower. We made eye contact, he was unhurried and unworried - in the afternoon sunshine his deep olive green feathers gleamed and shined. One of my garden's magical moments - as memorable as the day my pond frogs croaked and burped their desperate love-songs to next-door's chainsaw.