A Balanced Gardening Mind?
Indigo Aquilegia
The month of November requires a balanced gardening mind. While there's work to be done, so many beautiful things (new each day) require enjoying and reflecting on. It's my 'Take the time to sit down and smell the roses' month - if there's a rose near the seat of the day!
Herb Spiral Update...
Yesterday I thought the herb spiral was finished. A quick trip to the landscapers, a trailer full of top-soil and compost slowly shovelled in... Then Non-Gardening Partner came home and we two sat on the lawn and looked. Aargh! A false finish!
A Bit Flat on Top
NGP (lovely chap) thought it was a wonderful brick spiral, but that the top was a bit 'flat'. And he was right. Aargh! So today I've laid one more level - will these be the last of the final, final, bricks?
Part of me is pleasantly tired and very proud. I've had a shower, washed all my brick-dusty clothes, and even thrown out those awful mortaring gloves. Another part awaits NGP's homecoming with some trepidation - will he suggest even one more brick level, on the very, very top? Hmm... I suspect he will.
The Herb Spiral is Nearly Finished
This wind is very strong, noisy, and gusty, causing my irises (which I can see out the cottage window) to lean disgracefully over. That's so not fair! Admire something in the morning and it's fallen flat on its face by mid-afternoon.
I now need more soil-compost to fill the terrace gardens up. But it's been far too windy this afternoon to get any. I have quite a nice selection of herbs to plant, and I'm now off to the nursery to buy a trio of trailing Rosemaries for the very top. If indeed it is the top. Eek! This is scary!
Later...
Hee hee. Good to see I am back to my old nursery tricks. I bought the following...
- A Spiraea with blobby little white flowers.
- A variegated pink and green maple called 'Shirazz'.
- Two Felicia blue daisies.
...none of which have anything to do with the herb spiral. I did buy Bergamot, assorted Thymes, Marjorams, Sage Tricolor, and three trailing Rosemaries, the object of the exercise. Rosemary is for remembrance, and I hope I've laid those earthquake bricks, with their associated bad memories, to rest.
Irises in the Wattle Woods
Seven More Bricks...
And yes - there is to be a final level, only seven bricks, to completely finish the summit of the spiral. But I'm completely OK with this. It's just like being in the New Zealand mountains, where the journey and the rests along the way (but not too many!) are as important as standing on the top of something.
Saturday 3rd November
A lot of my lovely irises are now horizontal, thanks to a cold front full of whooshy rain which arrived overnight. Irises aside, this is great for the garden, but puzzling for someone (me) sleeping in an upmarket garden shed. As the temperature drops steadily, one sleeps fitfully, getting colder and colder, but not awake enough to grab more bedcovers. Brr... Two duck-down layers and my merino pyjamas later, snug, I listened to the random rain splatters on the cottage roof and smiled. It's a wonderful morning - now I'm warmer.
Later...
We've been to get a dozen more bricks. No gardening, though, thanks to the rain, which has now completely flattened my irises. A thought - irises rotated through ninety degrees are still jolly beautiful. But they're also beautiful picked and whisked inside in a house vase...
Wet Irises
Sneakily, almost hidden away behind the Cream Delight Phormium, one of the later pinky-red rhododendrons is finally flowering. It's a new addition to the Apple Tree Garden, and even has a label - Burnaby Centennial. I bought it when not wearing my spectacles in honour of the detective in Midsomer Murders. Oops.
Burbaby Centennial Rhododendron