What a week, did roundabout bedding plants on Tuesday it started packing on Wednesday and we were hit by the cold, wet and rain on Thursday, then on Saturday I had my permaculture workshop and by Sunday I am knackered!
On the homefront my hardenbergia or coral pea vine is in full bloom. It's beautiful, covering the arch with graceful arcs of white flowers. And it will hopefully do that every year. Grape hyacinths are out under the Magnolia, and narcissus are blooming tall under the maple.
I managed to do a bit more clipping hedging of the box at the front, also harvesting the capsicums, but am disappointed my winter veges - the pak choi, silverbeet and spinach have not grown very much at all. Has mum cursed my vege bed?
I should digest the rest of the permaculture workshop but there's so much to think about that I absentmindedly left my notebook behind in class. It was about urban design and we got to play the real version of Sim City by creating our own slice of suburban paradise with blocks and wool vegetation. I don't know if I will ever be in the job of town planner, but for those that are in the business of making developments aside from Donald Trump, you might want to consider doing these workshops. However, bear in mind no matter how well you design the environment, if people's hearts aren't in it you can't design a loving community, someone somewhere will always be unhappy.
My solution is to give them flowers.
The other thing I need to think about is NZ Gardener magazine has posed the question 'if money were no object, what would you have in your garden?' Where do I start??? They are not themselves offering any money, but dreams and visions are free.
So I think that's a whole 'nother post. I also have another book to read, after I finish 'The New Wild', which exposes the dark underbelly of plant and animal-cide wars the conservationists are having (terrible, now Phoenix Palms are officially weeds!) making Nazi style eugenics look tame in comparison. The other book I have on request is 'Help! My Garden is a Carpark: and other design dilemmas'.
Because it truly is. I'm calling in the depavers, to unpave the parking lot and put back paradise.
