My garden's bucket list...
Big Boss Gnome
The gardening person (me) has spent the last three days shifting dribbly little hoses, bucketing water, and poking and prodding at small things. I don't feel I've accomplished much (bucketing water can have that effect on me).
But wait. I am not a subsistence farmer desperate for rains that never come. I am only feeding my spirit. I'm an ornamental pleasure gardener, and I have water on my property. Beautiful, clean, uncontaminated water. Bucket away, I reckon!
The power of three...
I have a new plan (yes, another plan) to cajole myself into doing good, honest, structured gardening each day. In the morning I check into my journal - like a worker, entering the building with their swipe-card. This will be compulsory, until Christmas Eve. I indicate what I will be doing first, then second, and later into the afternoon, third. The power of three. Here's Parts One and Two for this morning :
- Spread mulch on weeded area of the Hump (thanks, Non-Gardening Partner's tractor, for dumping it).
- Dig out, pot up, and re-position geraniums (they are growing on the far side of Stables, not visible, a waste of summer colour).
There, That should do for a start. I am wearing my new strong gardening (AKA hiking) boots. They, too, are compulsory. And, unlike 'sheep', I promise not have 'gone astray'. Tra la la... By the way, I almost kept up with the runny quavers in yesterday's Handel's Messiah. Missed a couple of entries, sang a couple of wrong words. Oops. But for a musical person (me) the experience was inspiring. An amazing work to sing in.
Tractor by the Hump Garden
Later, Afternoon...
All is going well. The mulch is spread, and I've also been watering the shrubs in the Welcome Garden. Now for Part Three : do the back lawn edges along the water race. This will be fun - it will also involve trimming aquilegias and lupins, and dead-heading roses. Perhaps the Euphorbias, too, though if I do this I have to wear my glasses. Last time a splash of sap caused eye problems for a couple of hours.
The Hump Roses and Dahlias
By the way, the gardening boots are going really well. They make me feel very purposeful as I stride around shifting the hoses. Footwear can have quite a powerful effect on one's mood, I reckon.
Next morning...
Well, I feel pretty good about yesterday. My mulching and watering went well. Then, to help out my garden, the big irrigation ran for four hours early in the night. And then, blessed, proper rain, from clouds in the sky. It's still bucketing down (hee hee), so I'm off for a swim - looking after the gardening body. Then I'm doing piano practice (Handel and Bach), and then reading my new garden book. It's called 'The Layered Garden'. Today is too rainy to be a gardening day.
The roses will be really enjoying this rain. And the dahlias - I planted a lot of dahlias in the Hump last autumn, and they're loving their new location.