Gardening Articles 2006
Some things change, some things stay the same, and this gardener just can't seem to stop writing about her garden! Less time spent writing and more time spent designing, weeding, and planting would, in one of life's ultimate paradoxes, give more quality garden topics to write about. Writing which would then take time away from the garden...
You've guessed. I'm back for another year of gardening articles!
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Reviewing my Old Roses...
- I've always associated old fashioned roses with survival. I imagine such plants buried underneath the brambles, neglected in the old cemetery, yet still growing, and still flowering, living through decades of neglect.
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Raindrops on Roses...
- Whiskers on kittens - and raindrops on roses - these are definitely some of my favourite things. That is, as long as the raindrops are warm and gently vertical, and the rose petals aren't getting drenched.
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Akaroa Garden Tour 2...
- The second day of our Akaroa Garden Tour started off in the rain. We would be meeting famous lady gardeners, all of whom make their living by meeting people like us. And then a very private old couple with an amazing rhododendron garden. Eek!
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Akaroa Garden Tour 1...
- I am back from a two-day Garden Club trip to Akaroa. What an experience! Weather-wise I've experienced four seasons in one day, and garden-wise six gardens in two days. It's been a trip of total contrasts.
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Think Pink...
- The rhododendrons really started this year's big love affair with pink. The Moosey gardens had a forced winter clean out, so the rhododendrons woke up to clear, light, fresh spring air. Whoosh! Yippee! Bloom, bloom, bloom...
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Gardens of Savaii...
- Gardeners - the tropical islands of Samoa are much more than coconut palms and golden beaches. Nearly every house has a beautifully tended tropical ornamental garden. Samoa is a garden visitor's paradise!
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The Shrub Age...
- A lady gardener in shrub phase has nearly reached the end of the gardening line. She is following the seven ages of the temperate gardener: annual flowers, perennial flowers, roses, foliage plants, grasses, general shrubs, and finally trees.
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Spam for Gardeners...
- Spam. Aargh! The invasive cosmic weeds and nasty ethereal bugs which invade and annoy a gardener's e-mail. An annoyance guaranteed to bring us 'down to earth'...
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Goodbye, Yellow Wave......
- A little gardening sentiment should soften the blow when the (normally gentle) Head Gardener is 'farewelling' some landmark New Zealand Phormiums. But flax rhymes with axe... Warning - this page contains low level garden violence...
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The Seed Catalogue...
- Words for winter dreams! Sweet anticipation in front of the log-burner, colourful lists scribbled with deep personal promises - a winter festival of mind-gardening. The big seed catalogue has arrived in the post!
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Weeding...
- This year, to date, I have personally destroyed nearly one thousand weedy gorse seedlings. I spend on average twelve hours per week weeding and at least two hours writing about it! So, as a relatively normal semi-organic gardener, I will spend at least three years of my gardening life weeding. Do I have time to seriously tackle this serious topic?
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London Cordylines...
- The gardening world has been turned upside down. Here in New Zealand stylish gardeners have installed rows of slim Italianate cypresses and little English box hedges. Over there, London gardeners have gone potty over spiky cordylines!
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Poem...
- To help fellow gardeners answer the awful question - 'What shall I do first?' - I decided to write a small poem. The writing of it kept me busy and chuckling for hours, time which I should have been spending starting my morning's gardening.
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Fungi...
- My April garden is filled with colour - golds and reds on tree leaves, beautiful blue asters, pink late blooming roses. This year I fancied something different - so I went in search of the most colourful fungi I could find.
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Easter Plant Sale...
- Hee hee. It's the day of the Nursery Big Easter Plant Sale. This yearly event is the perfect chance for the Head Gardener to perform. It's not quite the waltz of the flowers - more like a courtly suite!
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Burning...
- This is the second in a series of serious articles on important gardening subjects. One could argue that, having done 'pruning', the next logical step in a country garden is to start the burning...
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Birthday Rose Garden...
- The Birthday Rose Garden, dug in March 2005 as a birthday present for the Daughter of Moosey, is definitely the gift that goes on giving! Now, one year on, it's the Moosey Daughter's birthday - again. My goodness, how the years flash by!
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Red Dahlias...
- The colour status of my March Garden is difficult to classify. There isn't much blue, or yellow. It's easy to see the greens - and then there are the browns. Yippee for the red dahlias!
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The Garden Club...
- Eek! My first post-retirement outing with the local Garden Club. I am waiting in the Community Hall car park, bag packed, water bottle and gumboots ready. The plan - we are to visit some gardens near Little River, on Banks Peninsula, Canterbury.
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Retirement Resolutions...
- Ha! After years of bleating, and cheating, and sneaking off to work part time, I am finally, properly, honestly, and terribly officially retired! I am finally a full-time gardener!
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A Good Gardening Read...
- Is it possible that gardening books are becoming as repetitive as the gardening topics they describe? Is there anything new under the sun? Or in the glass-house? Or on the well-stocked garden shelves in the Public Library?
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Pruning...
- This garden site is full of flowery froth and bushy bubbles. There are lots of moans and groans about weeding, and trimming, and garden tools - but serious horticultural information is a bit thin on the ground. Take pruning, for example...
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The Manly Garden Help...
- Friends in the forum had been talking about the perfect Christmas gift for a gardener. It all started with the following innocent question: 'What do you get a gardening mad Mum for Christmas?'
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New Year Garden Honours...
- In New Zealand we have our very own indigenous New Year Honours List. Rugby players, pop singers and scientists all get awards... In lieu of ever being able to style myself Dame Moosey, I've decided at least to have my own Garden Honours List.