Garden Centre

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

June Flowers and Invalid Gardeners

There are times that owning a garden means that you never lift your eyes above knee level, or at least the height of your highest shrub, and your focus is totally macro: you can see every aphid and ant, every snail trail and wilting flower, but not the big picture.

At other times you can only see the big picture. Two weeks ago I found myself having unplanned major surgery. Now I have another four weeks where I can’t dig or lift heavy things or even drive. It’s a surprise to me, just how much time I’ve spent with my eyes lowered to the task in hand, instead of raised to the garden as a whole.

Enforced leisure can be fun, but it brings other problems: I can see what needs to be done but I can’t do it! My fingers twitch to pull out the annual weeds that are springing out of my borders, and to dead-head the roses but I mustn’t. I can mention it to my nearest and dearest but if they don’t listen I can hardly nag them to do what they don’t even notice.

But after a few days, my eyes adjusted and I started to see certain charms that I’d never seen before, often because I’d removed them from the garden before they had a chance to be charming! Take this field poppy. I have glorious oriental poppies in the border, but usually these chance blown seedlings get removed before they have the chance to flower. This one escaped my weeding this year and has rewarded me with a smaller, simpler but perhaps more graceful flower than its blowsy oriental cousin.

Don’t worry though, I shall be back to frantic weeding by Mid-July!

Labels: june garden, june tasks, poppies

The All Seasons Gardener at 3:43 AM 0 Comments

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Thursday, June 12, 2008

Rain tasks

Things not to do when rain is forecast:

Hang out the washing
Plant out tiny tender edelweiss seedlings
Fill up the pond from the hosepipe
Leave your wheelbarrow out, right side up

Things to do when rain is forecast:

Set out thirsty plants for a quick drink
Check the downpipe is in the water butt
Cover up delicate and water sensitive plants and possessions
Take in the washing!

Guess which lot I did?

Yup, my wheelbarrow is swimming in three inches of water, the container of wildlife friendly slug pellets had its lid off and is now bluish soup, and my watch is fogged with water because I took it off to prune something and left it on the lawn.

But never mind! The garden needed the rain and during the second cloudburst I sheltered under the apple tree and gazed at the fatsia, which looked rather menacing and strange in the stormy light. Fatsia is an odd plant, but I like it, especially in the rain.

Labels: fatsia, june tasks, rain

The All Seasons Gardener at 6:20 AM 0 Comments

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