Dad helped me fix Archie (my garden arch) yesterday from its teetering position, we banged in the Mitre 10 rebars I'd fashioned and I retied the stakes with panti-hose. All that's left to do is find some universal screws to replace the one that's missing.
Louise came over offering half a bag of shredded pine-bark mulch, which I gladly strew under the kowhai trees. Dragon's Gold is flowering now, its seems like wearing a hundred earrings of golden yellow. Thanks Louise.
I am celebrating school holidays, which theoretically ought to mean more garden time, but has now translated into more study hours to catch up on. Some things I never had thought about before in running/owning a business. Do I need insurance? What legislation do I need to comply with? What CRM system to use? And other abstract things that have nothing to do with getting one hands dirty. And then there's risk. Thankfully I don't really intend to run a business per se. I'm busy enough as it is. But if for some strange reason I'm called to do so, I'll know exactly what's involved. And I can add even more letters after my name, like Selina CEO.
My sister, never one for getting hands dirty, has sent me a pair of fancy garden gloves that look too good to use. They are floral patterned blue with leather accents. She's given me posh Cath Kidston floral pyjamas too, so that I can look like a chic gardener at work outside AND in bed. Mum and Dad had gone to Kew Gardens, and said they saw giant amazonian water lilies from underneath. Dad took photos and there's an array of perfect looking roses, foxgloves, catmint and...photogenic cats lounging around the parks and gardens of London. Kew Gardens has the famous palm house in which tropical plants of all kind flourish. Kind of like the Auckland Domain's Wintergardens, but on a much grander scale.
I had said to my former workmates that I was planning a garden trip after I left when the broken promise of a Taranaki Flower Festival trip never eventuated. My big plans were perhaps to see Japan, or China in gardens, but that plan was quashed when sister said she was going to run a marathon in Chicago instead, clashing with the dates, as she was going to meet with me. But now with the school holidays and my studies, I won't be able to get away anyway. However, the Floral Circle have announced their annual trip is to Te Awamutu, which is famous for its Rose gardens and that might just have to do. So I've earmarked dates at the start of November, right after I finish my course. Must tell Karyn as that's where she's from.
The other garden update is - purple salvia is now liberated and planted in my wisteria bed, Christmas lily bulbs now moved to the front, and overcrowded aloe vera pups divided and placed in a tyre. The weather has turned colder, and wetter. I've started reading Michelle Obama's memoir Becoming. I'm now up to the part where she decides to rip up the White House Lawn and put a vege garden there. She notes that the staff at first were resistant, but then they came round. But then who can say no to the First Lady of the United States? Somebody has to care and slim down those obese American kids.
She writes that from $200 worth of mulch and seeds in their first season they had more than 90 pounds worth of produce. They had honey from the bees, salads for the White House kitchen, and fresh veges enough to feed the homeless. Also it meant she could wear casual clothes in the garden and not be constantly scrutinised over every outfit. She also had child labourers from elementary school come to help her dig, because obesity was threatening to turn them into couch potatoes.
Ah Michelle Obama, my heroine. You had a brief moment in the sun, and you planted many seeds that reaped a harvest. Now the USA has someone in power intending to build a great wall, but didn't he learn anything from history? There's already a Great Wall of China, and it clearly didn't work. I have an idea for Mr Trump, he could create a garden border that would be just as effective. On the Mexican side, he can have a hedge of Mexican sage, tithonia and agave. The spiky agaves would create an effective barrier and the mexican sage would generate enough food for bees so the Mexicans can harvest honey, and then they wouldn't need to sneak their way into the US. And the tithonia? Would be there because bright orange Mexican sunflowers would make everyone happy. Yes, just plant them all along, using eager child diggers and watch international relations improve.
