Stand by...
So yesterday the hedge trimmer spent four hours on the Moosey property. Today the Head Gardener starts four days - or is that four weeks? - cleaning up the mess. Stand by for some extremely boring gardening journal writing!
Thursday 29th October
It rained again last night, so the garden is green and damp. My vegetable garden looks happy, though - no frosts to scare the tiny tomato seedlings. It's quite cold, so I'm off swimming, and then I'm going to drag branches around into piles for the shredder. I'm very glad we have a decent shredder - it (and Non-Gardening Partner) will be working non-stop this weekend. Me too!
Rugosa Rose
So spring slips slowly into summer. Blossom from the big cherry trees in the pond paddock is falling, as are the Wisteria flowers on the patio. A lot of the big rugosa roses behind the glass-house are starting to flower. There's a scattering of dark blue and purple irises, too. And an extremely cheerful late-flowering dark pink rhododendron in the Driveway Border - I can't remember it being so nice. I guess I shifted it last year...
- 'I need my gardening months, and weeks, and days, and hours to be longer.'
- -Moosey Words of Wisdom.
And October is almost over. This is really scary - I need my gardening months, and weeks, and days, and hours to be longer.
Time - goes by - so slowly? I don't think so. Not really - no way! Definitely not for dedicated gardeners. There's hardly time to stop and think, when one is a dedicated gardener.
Hedge Trimming Mess
Later, Lunchtime...
Hmm... It's cold and blustery. All I've done outside it collect up my gardening tools which were - ahem - left out in the rain overnight. And now the sun is shining... Make up your mind! A leisurely peep at my new gardening library books might be more pleasant than clutching wet and sap-sticky branches of conifers...
Later...
Well, how about one hour pruning and dragging branches around? There's not much garden damage - a few leaves off the Crambe and a couple of purple and cream irises. But I seriously think I need help...
Friday 30th October
Today I am burning conifer rubbish all day, apart from a break when I will cycle round the block with my dog. I am really going to try hard not to get grumpy - I don't like burning. I need to find my bow saw, too, to cut up the larger tree-sized branches.
Ha! I need a reward. I also need cat company - Rusty dog is great, naturally, since he's quite nosy about poking around in fallen trees, but he is a dog.
I should grab Minimus the kitten, who has been very slack of late, gardenwise. Except that last time she came gardening with me - oops - I forgot to call her properly back inside. Being an oddly behaved cat she stayed exactly in that piece of garden. And then it rained and rained, and I went off to a choir dinner. And when I came home - eek! Out of the garden she came, absolutely drenched.
Pink Rhododendron
Mid-Morning...
Aargh! I've only been working for two hours, and I am over it already. I do not enjoy burning. And I am supposed to be burning ALL DAY. Humph. I'm inside for coffee and there even seems to be smoke in the house (don't worry, it's an illusion).
Lilli-Puss :- Lilli-Puss is my reclusive young grey cat who lives upstairs.
But I can do this. At least grey cat Lilli-Puss is enjoying herself - she is my cat-company, and is busy climbing up through the hedge. So this is why she always smells beautifully of pine tree! And one of the bellbirds is tootling and whistling overhead - hope he stays out of the smoke! Grr.... Off back outside I go.
Mid-Afternoon...
I dislike burning. Actually there are stronger words I could use, but being a partially polite old lady...
Garden Bonfire - Aargh!
And I've been thinking some more about negative garden visitors. My last ones saw thousands of different types of plants, shrubs, trees. And the only things they commented on? Some weedy broom and a piece of rogue gorse, both growing out of other shrubs by the water race. Hmm...
Drooping Aquilegias
Both have beautifully visible yellow flowers (if the gardener is slack enough to let them get big enough), and both are an absolute menace. Anyway, I've nipped both and thrown them onto my fire. Right. One small session to go. Grr...
Plants for Rewards
By the way, for a burning reward I've bought six Agapanthus plants called 'Blue Brush' and two unknown roses which I have to dig out, courtesy of the online plant auctions. Ha! Blue Brush is supposed to be fragrant, but I don't necessarily believe that.
Late-Afternoon...
Phew! My horrible, tedious, stinky, annoying, burning day is over. I am fragrant and clean. I have been so good today (apart from the grumbling). Now I'm going to have a cup of tea, and then, as a special personal reward (another one), some whitebait fritters for my evening meal. Yum. I deserve this!
Saturday 31st October
Hello - said cheerfully, in my happy voice. It's time to start today's conifer clean-up. Non-Gardening Partner will have the shredder going - this is a good thing. I have already organised my rewards for today - new plants to pick up, and a freshly tuned piano. Moths (possibly) had nibbled at three of the felts! How rude...
Mugsy the Cat :- Mugsy the cat has almost reached her ninth life.
Now my resigned yet caring voice. Mugsy the geriatric disabled cat isn't coping very well. She eats, yet she's losing weight. Her fur is in a dreadful condition. And as for that wobbly back end - oh dear.
Mugsy now falls over whenever using her kitty-litter box. Either I have to rush over and hold her upright, or clean her up afterwards. Hmm...
Much Later, Apres-Gardening...
Make that apres-shredding. Non-Gardening Partner and I have been working our way slowly down the lawn by the trimmed hedge. NGP has been a wonderful help, even getting his chainsaw out and chopping up branches destined for firewood. He is forgiven for running over my Skunk Cabbage plant (it will survive).
Agnes Rugosa Rose
Something really giggly happened on my way back from picking up the Agapanthus and the roses. In a truly serendipitous (?) moment, driving on a road I rarely use, I passed a church plant sale. The stall-helpers were trying to pack up - the sale was over, and all the remaining plants on the table were one dollar each.
Thirty Seven Plants!
Eek! I stopped and grabbed - oops - 37 plants, and gave a $60 donation. I have the following plants, at amazing value for money. Some pots are pretty large...
- 21 Hostas.
- 5 Hydrangeas.
- 3 Johnson's Blue Geraniums.
- 2 little variegated Thymes.
- 2 little Sedums.
- 2 Trandescantias.
- 1 beautiful variegated Agave.
- 1 Cordyline in a terracotta pot.
I am very pleased to report that I can fit 37 bargains + 6 agapanthus = 43 plants in pots, plus two large thorny roses in shopping bags, plus shovels and buckets, plus two people, all in my little car. Hee hee... The roses are in buckets of water, half-pruned, and everything else awaits planting. I'm not quite sure where...
Oops. I almost forgot. Goodbyeeeeeee to October.