7th May 2006:

So much has been happening.

On the grand scale Nonsuch is finally 'coming together'. I have been here just over a year and in that year have had works of some kind constantly going on here. For many months - eight or nine - nothing ever seemed to be happening, save that mess accumulated atop mess. Now, in the past 2 or 3 months, it is all coming together.

The roof has been replaced, the verandah has been completely rebuilt and restored, the house has been stripped of 130 years of accumulated bad paint jobs and then repainted. It was the repainting that did it - suddenly people were knocking on the front door and saying how wonderful it was to see the house restored. Cars slow in the street, pedestrians stop and stare.

Nonsuch is looking gorgeous. Nup ... it is looking spectacular, considering the state it was in when I purchased it.

But of course we still have some mess! The landscaping! Oh! Great mounds of dirt everywhere! The landscapers seem to have got stuck in the mid-section of the garden where the most work has to be done - many paths, big dry-stone retaining walls, raised garden beds, drainage, excavations. I have my front garden to plant, and now I have a bed in the mid-section. No sooner have those chaps finished a section than I am in there planting. And, of course, just about every day the postman arrives with a truck load of more waterproof cardboard boxes filled with young plants. Already one bedroom of my house is piled high with bulbs that desperately need to be planted - now I have tube and potted stuff everywhere as well.

It is slowly going in - over the past few weeks many more bulbs, iris, hydrangea, acanthus, peonies and clematis have gone in. Many more wait their turn. I dread the arrival of the roses and the monstrous giant rhubarbs, not to mention the lilies and the salvias and the mop-top robinias.

I am so OVER planting bulbs! I planted 800 yesterday, and there's another 1000 or so waiting for me today. It is getting to the point where I look at the bin of bulbs, then I look at the wheelie bin, and I wonder at what point I am going to break.

There is a local nursery that when I ring up and say I want another massive load of compost there is a sigh the other end of the phone, and some tired voice says, "This is a Nonsuch order, isn't it ..."

18th May 2006:

Planting, planting, planting. There are days when I grow to loathe the trowel. As for carting compost everywhere ...

More plant orders placed, though. Perhaps 100 dwarf cannas to go in a central raised circular bed. They will flower for at least 9 months of the year and will look fabulous - two shades of pink. Most of the peonies have been planted ... but yesterday I ordered more. I need some butterfly bushes - must find time to order today or tomorrow. I have some bog plants, delivered last week, but still haven't found time to plant them.

Landscaping work continues. I believe (through psychic contact for little is exchanged verbally) that the landscapers are about to start the rose arbor. The brick causeway is all but complete, and is just fabulous. It uses reclaimed bricks so looks as if it has been there a hundred years already. I planted a curry hedge along its length last weekend. I'm not too sure of the scent of the curry with the scent of the peonies behind them, but time will tell if it is a scented disaster!

Next week my gardener (sadly lamenting the total loss of his lawns) will come and rip out the garden by the side fence so I can replant that.

30th May 2006:

Well, D'Wayne and his side-kick arrived and cleared out the side garden for me - more space! More planting opportunities! all that is left is one manfern doing fairly well (but will be moved to the woodland/rainforest area eventually) an old lilac and a rose that needs pruning soooo badly.

The landscapers continue. Nice lads, but I wish they'd go.

Bog plants planted. Butterfly bushes ordered.