Things have been developing in my garden since the rains have come. I moved all the succulents out of my hanging troughs into the sunny area under the eaves of the house. It was rampant with creeping violets that creep along and fry in the sun looking wilted, so I pulled these all out and now it's a somewhat fairy garden of tiny succulents and portulaccas, and geranium cuttings.
Now the hanging troughs had been emptied out with their falling apart coconut liners, which I've used as mulch, I have relined them with hessians sacks and one fraying bathtowel, along with newspapers, paper bags, comfrey and twigs for drainage. Into these went super light weight potting mix, prostrate rosemaries and lobelias. I'm going for the blue flowers trailing look. This will combine nicely with the blue flowers of plumbago which is slowly and steadily creating climbing hedge against the timber fence. Mum wasn't too pleased I had used 'her' hessian sacks to line my baskets with, but I said I could always find more (Thanks Marianne, also for the coffee grounds). The thing is coconut liners they sell at the garden centres just rot and fall apart over the years, and then you end up with potting mix and soil crumbling through the cracks and they are not exactly cheap either.
Then it was time to overhaul Snowy's bed as you might recall it's got the maple tree that sucks all the moisture out of the soil, so I've given it lots of crassulas (apparently meant to be a weed in Auckland) around the base of the tree, to give it some green coverage instead of struggling dandelions. Then more creeping violets I've pulled out of the Apricot tree bed, which is having scented geranium and penstemon cuttings. Once I got the secateurs handy I couldn't help myself and took more cuttings, so have poked in more daisies, echiums and pelargonium cuttings all over the garden.
Socks and Mary's bed also has been given lots of homemade compost and am growing lupins. I've just put in more lambs ears as Jennifer and I tidied up the St Giles beds on Saturday and it was growing a bit rampant. Never one to waste plants I took them home and have now tucked them in various spots. Also star of this garden is echinacea - I finally managed to find one, this one came from Kelmarna Gardens which I revisited yesterday with mum for their Harvest Festival. Looking good Kelmarna! Beth has also given me another manuka, so I've planted that there as well.
I have now moved the lemon tree into a big pot and need to go dose it with Epsom salts because the leaves are looking rather yellow and it hadn't been getting enough sun. Perhaps it may have to stay in the pot? I've given lemon plenty of seaweed mulch, comfrey and worm castings.
I was only slightly annoyed this morning when, leaving the front door open to recycle my grey water, Dad kept closing it because of Martha, and then yelled at me to go get a job. I got mad, and said I already had a job at home. I don't think he ever sees the garden as a lot of work but it is. He later apologised but Lord knows if I don't garden this place nobody will, it will grow weeds and nobody will care. Mum tried to show me job ads for gardeners wanted but I don't want to garden someone else's garden and be bossed around and bullied and exposed to dangerous poisons and go deaf from mowing lawns like last time. No thanks to wage slavery. Never again! I said to Mum, I'm going to be my own boss right at home cos I don't want to live in a dinky apartment building and join the rat race just to earn money so I can pay the rent on said apartment and be bored out of my brain from the nine to five grind. Mum had some compassion on me because she'd lived in Hong Kong where you couldn't grow a thing and all you saw was 4 million other people living in high rises/parking lots as far as the eye could see.
So she stopped showing me job ads in the paper from potential tyrants. I'd been in the job hunting and CV writing business long enough to know that when people leave a job vacancy it's because they don't get paid enough or they are treated like slaves by their horrible bosses.
