Excuses...
Red Camellia
OK, so the beginning of my week might have been slow, gardenwise, but by Friday nothing was happening at all. Zero gardening. Walking the dogs and picking spring flowers cannot be counted.
Saturday 22nd August
Excuses - oh yes. A bit of drizzle (just a bit, one day only), a slightly sore back (the word 'slightly' is the key word here), some music charts to write (but this can easily be done at the end of the day). Just not up to my usual standards. Hopefully today I can make up the deficit. No more 'gardening rubato', so to speak.
Blossom...
There's blossom - the first Prunus trees, many of which are seedlings. I love the odd locations that they've chosen. Some are pink, most are white. And the Almond trees are in blossom, too. Early? Not really. More Camellias and the big red Rhododendron (Cornubia) in the driveway garden are flowering. The Hellebores are in full swing now, heads down shyly.
Solo Daffodil
Daffodils...
I have some lovely yellow daffodils, but they look a bit sad and sparse - one here, maybe two over there, where initially I'd planted seven, nine, eleven bulbs (a gardening book had told me to plant odd numbers, hee hee). Memo to self : restocking and/or feeding the bulbs appropriately would result in better blooming.
Three hours later...
I've done three hours of uninspiring work - cleaning up, chopping down suckering Viburnums, trimming Phormiums (there seem to be almost as many Phormiums as roses in my garden). Now I'm off to burn the mess. Humph.
Do it in winter!
The winter clean-up has to be done in winter, right? It's not hard. But today in the Welcome Garden (where the Viburnums were), I barely scratched the surface. I couldn't decide how deep this clean-up should be. For example, how many of the seedling Cotoneasters and Tagasastes (tree lucernes, flowering now, food for the early bees) do I dig out? And what can I use to mulch the surface after weeding? I've run out of wood chippings. All these questions just lead to dithering. Hopeless!
Later still...
I've worked for two more hours, just doing the bonfire. I found more roses (coloured Icebergs) to prune, and I trimmed another huge Miscanthus. I dragged lots of mess out from the fence (mainly sneaky rose prunings mixed in with dry ferns). Whoosh went the flames.
Flames - and Dogs
I'm happy with my day. It's been productive and necessary. And not too uninspiring - sometimes gardening is just like that. Can't expect every day to be super noisy, full of joyous treble fanfares. Some days are full of groaning cellos?
Sunday 23rd August
Apologies, garden, but it's drizzling, and I'm expecting visitors, so I've vacuumed the downstairs instead of weeding or clearing you. Sorry about this, much love from M.
P.S. I have taken some lovely photographs of you, though. Thanks from the bottom of my heart for being so patient with me.