Gardening Successes
I'm not a knowledgeable gardener and to be fair not a very good one. In my old drinking days I had a massive resentment with gardening, you'd plant something, it died, you'd prune something to a neat shape, it'd grow up in an odd shape, you'd mow the lawn, next week it'd grown back. I had no concept that it is a constant work in progress it is a journey and wherever the garden is is wherever it is on that journey but you never reach the destination.
Now I don't mind pottering about in the garden. This year I cut back an old Hebe that had got way too big and had gone rotten in some places and planted some new flowers there - that has been successful, both those took and one flowered well. I planted a Buddleja which flowered and attracted butterflies to the garden. I also got our sweet peas to grow tall and flower.
Finally two I'm really pleased about. First a Passionflower plant we've had for a number of years, well I was sure it was dead after the winter, I'd never seen it looking so bad - it was frankly just a twig, and an unhealthly looking one at that! Still my wife said to give it some time so I cut back the dead leaves etc. fed and watered it and look at it now!
Then lastly I cleared out a bit of the garden long over taken with weeds etc. I moved this little old fuchsia which I also thought was dead, it had been over shadowed by a large Hydrangea next to it and last year just was a bunch of twigs. I moved it to this new cleared patch and fed and watered it, given I moved it in the middle of summer I again thought most likely I'd be writing it off... but no look - a red bud has appeared and all those leaves too. Looks like a potential success as well.
Quite chuffed with myself.
Now I don't mind pottering about in the garden. This year I cut back an old Hebe that had got way too big and had gone rotten in some places and planted some new flowers there - that has been successful, both those took and one flowered well. I planted a Buddleja which flowered and attracted butterflies to the garden. I also got our sweet peas to grow tall and flower.
Finally two I'm really pleased about. First a Passionflower plant we've had for a number of years, well I was sure it was dead after the winter, I'd never seen it looking so bad - it was frankly just a twig, and an unhealthly looking one at that! Still my wife said to give it some time so I cut back the dead leaves etc. fed and watered it and look at it now!
Then lastly I cleared out a bit of the garden long over taken with weeds etc. I moved this little old fuchsia which I also thought was dead, it had been over shadowed by a large Hydrangea next to it and last year just was a bunch of twigs. I moved it to this new cleared patch and fed and watered it, given I moved it in the middle of summer I again thought most likely I'd be writing it off... but no look - a red bud has appeared and all those leaves too. Looks like a potential success as well.
Quite chuffed with myself.
Journey, schmurney. I don't like cutting the grass on my weekend. I'm embarrassed to admit it but I actually pay someone to cut my grass. It's my only act of decadence. Well done on you. It's Eden all over again.
ReplyDeleteOh well done! As a plant killer myself I have only admiration for successful gardeners.
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine what it would be like to engage in gardening/yard care somewhere where it wasn't 95-100 degrees Fahrenheit for six months of the year. Here, everything pretty much turns brown and dies. Then, winter rolls in, and we get socked in with fog and don't see the sun for weeks at a time, and nothing wants to grow. When I went to England years back, everything was so green and lush, it was almost a shock to my senses. I would think growing something there would be a pleasure! (isn't gardening taken VERY seriously in Britain? Kind of like barbecue here in the States? lol)
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