Am doing my homework, and this time it's cutting back frosted basalm, which looks absolutely awful when hit by frost, like it's packing a sad. It turns all black and wilted. As long as the temperature stays above freezing it looks gorgeous and lush, with pale pink flowers but am having to rethink keeping it long term for my garden, because I could grow a tougher plant that would look good all year round instead. If that sounds a tad ruthless, well, it was not a plant I had chosen, it was one of Beth's donations, and it's easily propagated by cuttings, so I don't think it will be too great a loss.
Perhaps I could replace it with a plant with reddish flowers or foliage that would complement the bricks of the house?
I sowed some sugar snap peas seeds to grow up the plastic trellis by garage near the passionfruit which I had cut back to basically a few stems. In that raised bed I've also added a feverfew/pyrethrum and michaelmas daisy. I know, rather schizophrenic gardening mixing up flowers, herbs and veges in the same bed. I am a messy gardener. Someone with OCD would be horrified that I haven't planted in razor straight rows and given all my plants labels. That my stakes are rather crooked and I haven't even cut the end of the trellis where its extra. And my sowing style wasn't with a ruler either I just kind of flung the seeds in. How careless! I would be fired by now if I was working in a commercial nursery. Perhaps it's my rebellious way of declaring I am not a robot. I haven't written down how many seeds I sowed so I can monitor the germination rates. I haven't even dug the soil really or forked it over, just added compost and wisteria leaves, coffee grounds and whatever organic matter I can find into the bed. I guess it's the hippie, permaculturalist non-conformist subversive nature in me. Or maybe its meant to be art. All I know it's gardening not farming.
I have further ideas for St Giles church garden. One being a vine to cover the roadside fence railings, and there are two options there, star jasmine and/or hardenbergia. There is also another railing near the Kimberly day care which could support a passionfruit vine, or maybe even sweet peas. I was of the opinion that all the fence railings made the church grounds look too much like a prison. People passing by might start to think it's a Mormon church and those churches are landscaped to an inch of their life, and dare I say it soul-less entities. Am sorry because my next door neighbours happen to be Mormons and their interest in gardens and landscaping is fairly minimal. They put the bones in but then neglect it, so weeds grow in their potato patch, and when it gets out of hand with deadly nightshade growing up to their windows only then do they do a big clear out. Then it looks bare, and tidy, but tidy for me often means B-O-R-I-N-G. But maybe it's their belief that, this life on earth isn't meant for them anyway so who cares? Why bother with an actual garden? They painted their front fence and outdoor decking black, and I wonder if that's meant to be a fashion statement or it's just to hide the dirt.
I know it sounds like I'm being judgemental, but I can't avoid seeing their house every single day as our driveway is right next to theirs with only a chicken wire fence to divide us. It might be partly my fault as I had got the council on to them about removing their privet, but then they removed every other plant on the border between us as well, so the only plants left on their property is a bottlebrush, a feijoa, and a citrus tree. They could have at least left the camellia, or, put some other plants in as a hedge. I just find it really hard to talk to them, because who heard of a Non-Mormon knocking on a Mormon's house asking them to convert. I might get in trouble with their prophets or something because I'm not wearing the right sacred holy underwear. I pass by their church on Universal Drive and it kind of creeps me out a bit with the big forbidding railings, I never see anyone there, and it would be hard for me to say they are rather mistaken about Jesus visiting America and starting up a new religion by damning everyone else for believing in Him prior to Joseph Smith's seance with the angel Moroni.
