Yippee! The weekend!
Yippee! The weekend! I have a Non-Gardening Partner to seriously organise. I need more stones, I need the wet ash from the burning heap to be expertly dug out and spread on the garden. The ultimate recycling...
Red Oak Trees
Saturday 25th April
Lots of gardens have tiny starting points. So do garden projects - that tiny cartoon lightbulb-thought floating above the gardener's head, saying something like: Hmm... I wonder about a new path...
New Wattle Woods Path :- The new Wattle Woods path has been one of my fastest new garden projects ever.
Anyway, all the very best to the newest Moosey path which cuts through the Wattle Woods, starting at the main path and ending at the fence-line, with a hop, skip and a tiny jump over the wriggling stream. I hope you get your edges finished today and your new plants purchased and planted.
And for the future - may the light tread of a million gardener's footsteps compact your surface and warm your soul.
Corrections:
- That's one gardener treading on you a million times, not a million different gardeners. Eek!
- And the word 'light' is relative. For example, when compared to Fluff-Fluff the cat, the Head Gardener's footsteps are light...
And congratulations to the Moosey seedling (parentage unknown), whose picture features in an Allotment Gardeners Newsletter circulated in the Lake District, England. Image recycling in the big web-world - I love it!
Wattle Woods Garden Bench
Trip to Washington DC
Right. Time to make a sort-of-serious list. I have piles and piles of rotting hay mulch sitting, waiting to be applied to my garden. And I have another 'deadline' which is really exciting. In the middle of May (which isn't far off) I am going to Washington DC for a short two week visit. My plan is to have all the Moosey garden beds 'ready' for winter before I leave. That means:
Sort-Of-Serious List
- Mulching.
- Moving pelargoniums, daisies, and succulents into the glass-house.
- Cutting back lots of perennials.
- Organising compost heaps.
- Burning all the dry gum tree rubbish.
And I have - lets see - three weeks in which to achieve all this. Should be easy peasy?
Oops! A Floppy Cosmos
Late Afternoon...
I've had a brilliant day. I've been in the (cold) water race twice and laid the stone edge right down to the big red flax in the Dog-Path Garden. My little ponds in the Wattle Woods are full - the wriggling stream has even been flooding a little. I've wedged some clumps of 'rock-flour' (that's what NGP calls it) into the patch of Iris confusa to stop the leak. Half the ash volcano is dismantled. I've worked really hard, and I haven't spent any money - this is a good thing. There is space for some new flaxes by the new path, though...
Oops! A Floppy Dahlia
Falling and Flopping...
More oak leaves are falling, other trees have turned golden, and more and more dahlias are flopping over. Late flowering roses are everywhere now - their blooms more colour-saturated, in deeper shades. Many of my daisies and pelargoniums have only just got into the flowering mood - odd, that, since they'll need to be scooped up pretty soon and put into winter pots. Too slow, you guys, too slow!
Sunday 26th April
I've been working with the stones in the water race, and I've heightened (?) and strengthened the small stone retaining wall in the Dog-Path Garden. Some decisions have been made - the scruffy Rosemary has gone, a delightfully mature weedy broom also (aargh!), and I've divided and moved some blue Lupins. I've built up the soil behind the stones, and I'm going to plant my variegated Arundo here on the water's edge.
The Dog-Path :- Yet again the Head Gardener misjudges how close to something a flax should be planted! Oops!
The Dog-Path itself has been redefined - it cannot be walked on for its whole length, since the flaxes have got too big. Rather than fight against nature, secateurs in hand, and fall into the water I will deliberately block parts of the path off with water-side plantings. Nice.
Now I have to excuse myself from the garden - I have a singing engagement. Are my fingernails clean enough? Nope... Non-Gardening Partner has home-alone instructions to refill the trailer with stones for me.
Rose Coconut Ice
Later, Apres Tra-La-La...
Worries again regarding Lilli-Puss my timid grey cat, whose 'attendance' is becoming most erratic. Again she's been AWOL for nearly 48 hours. All I can do is call her, and wait, and call her, and wait...
She's the most loving, friendly cat when she's upstairs in residence. She has her secret entrance to the upstairs rooms (a window that the two bullies Tiger and Fluff-Fluff are too fat to fit through), and the door is always shut to them. I make a huge fuss of her when she turns up. I can do no more.
Sort It Out, Lilli-Puss!
As for blaming Tiger and Fluff-Fluff - I'm afraid that Lilli needs to sort it out herself, really. Those two fat cats are full of hot air, no more.
When I'm away for two weeks Son Of Moosey will be staying here. But to lessen his responsibilities Jerome the old limpy grey cat and Minimus the new kitten will go to the vet's cattery. I had thought of sending Lilli, too, but she wouldn't cope with being caged. Jerome doesn't do anything but sleep, and Minimus is young enough to adapt. Of course Rusty the dog is going to his favourite kennels.
Footnote, Early Next Morning...
Still no sign of Lilli-Puss. I'm off with my cup of tea to search around the hedges and fences. If she's sick somewhere I must try and find her (this will be difficult - grey cats have great camouflage). If she's just got the sulks with the other cats and left, then I hope she'll find the family of her dreams - a sweet, kind old catless lady... Hmm...