How
has it managed to get this far into the month without
an entry?
Busy,
busy two weeks, and little of it in the garden.
Weeding,
planting - I took delivery of a bunch of woodland and
bog plants, as well thirty Himalayan Blue Poppies and
six fuchsias - watering, and wrestling with 80 kilos of
rapid set concrete that ... set too rapidly. *sigh* So
this weekend it is back to the mixer and some more concrete
and many admonishments to be a bit FASTER this time.
All
of the trees now growing on, and most well. The mop-top
robinias are all thriving, the ordinary robinias are doing
okay, but they really don't like the wind we've been having,
the baby silver birches are doing very well, and the paper
birches are thinking, somewhat sulkily, that they might
make an effort at surviving.
To
the right my first posy of flowers from the garden - nothing
from what I have planted, but a compilation of the previously
unidentified but now re-named Nonsuch Rose, some of the
very old lilac, and a sprig of hawthorn for a real touch
of spring sweetness.
15th
October 2006:
What
a week. We've had the most gruesome hot weather, coupled
with unbelievable winds, and bushfires - one night I could
lay in bed and watch the eastern shore ablaze. A scary
but fascinating sight. And then - a cool change, and snow
this morning on the mountain.
And
most things have survived (although a few were gasping
during the heat wave). Even the Himalayan poppies produced
a good stiff upper lip and pulled through. Some of the
roses had some leaf burn, some of the Lavatera had to
be resuscitated half way through the day, and my beautiful
horse chestnut babies had most of their leaves stripped
off (even in a sheltered spot as they were), but overall,
I don't think I lost anything.
Last
week I managed to find some pea straw (and had it delivered
last week, thankfully, as I am now wondering if the supplies
went up in the fires) and have been busily and happily
mulching. Yesterday I drew up a watering schedule, without
which I am always hopelessly lost.
View
to the left is standing beside the potting shed looking
north. Both the rambling roses which cover the shed and
the view are stunning. This was taken the morning after
the bushfires ... the night before these hills were ablaze.
Then, just after I'd taken this photo, the clouds scudded
in, and rain and snow arrived. Weather!
I've
decided I want a rose garden. I can't believe this. When
I first started gardening seriously about ten years ago
I swore I would never have a rose in my garden, mainly
because I hate the hybrid tea horrid shrub. But now that
I've discovered the 'old' roses, I am a lost woman. I
think I will turn the sunken area into a rose garden with
herbaceous perennials, peonies and such like. Lilies,
too, perhaps.
26th
October 2006:
I
am currently trying my best to aid two terribly incompetent
blackbird parents raise their equally silly young, but
in the face of all this incompetence and silliness ...
God knows if the two chicks will survive. The parents
pushed the chicks out of the nest too young, still a couple
of weeks to go before they can fly, and so now they're
living on ground level among the outdoor pots outside
the potting shed. If I put them in a nice warm box they
escape.
Another
fifty bales of pea straw this week, and this will, hopefully,
complete my mulching. I want to mulch out the side garden
which has not yet been touched to get rid of lawn and
weeds, and then plant it out next winter/spring.
The
Russell Lupins are forming great spikes - wonderful! They
are doing so well at the edge of the bog garden that I'll
save seed from them, grow on, and transplant into all
the other wet hard to grow areas of the front garden.
All
the trees continue to green out, although two of the paper
birches are not doing so well (but I have hopes, I have
hopes) and the perennials continue to clothe themselves
for summer. I wish (for the six hundredth time) that I
could just fast forward several years to see a mature
result.
29th
October 2006:
Well
... the cats ate the blackbird chicks. Darwinism at its
best, I guess.
Been
weeding ... thought about decanting the meadow saffron
from their pots to plant out in the garden for their autumn
flowering, but they had such strange shapes ... so think
maybe they need a little more maturing in the pots.
Strange,
strange weather. Snow and ice over the past few days.
Only light snow here, and the garden has been fine - but
who would expect snow this late in the year, and after
the raging bushfires of but a few weeks ago?
I
have finally planted out from tubes into pots my 400-odd
bay trees. I sitll am not sure what I will do with them
... the tree gardenia hedge is doing poorly, so I may
end up planting them out as a hedge as I originally intended.
