Is there anything more beautiful than a plot of earth ready for planting? This is my potato patch, just pulled up the vetch, pea and mustard green crop, I'm waiting for the plants to wilt so I can dig them in. The red tulips are Ile de France, my favourite. It's not dwarf and doesn't grow too tall either, so you can see the flowers well, but they don't get stripped by the wind. And such a glorious colour.
I'm having a day in the garden (as usual). The men are out in the road doing things to our wastewater pipes again, but it's not too noisy, thankfully. I'll stay around the back of the house in the sun anyway. They had a conclave a few minutes ago. Hope they haven't found something amiss.
Decluttering seems to be as important for the garden as decluttering the house. I'm trying to get a lot of potted things into the garden beds, as having a lot of small pots is visually messy. The vegetable area had a lot of small pots sitting on the concrete, stuff waiting to be put into the garden; I've planted or given away most of these and kept the larger potted plants only - the garden looks a lot tidier as a result.
I've compost-binned some of the things that I don't really like or don't fit into the bigger scheme, and will donate some plants to the church fair. I have a pohutukawa in a pot, which will be too big for my small garden if I ever plant it out. There's a few bits and pieces of kitsch garden pots too, things that Mum gave me or were left by the last owner. It's only taken me 11 years to get rid of them. Kitsch-y little things make the garden look like an old person lives here - I try and avoid getting cutesy-ier as I get older.
The key to garden decluttering is to be the Spanish Inquisition - utter ruthlessness; that plant that has struggled for years, or has never flowered because its tropical and your garden is not - out it goes! Utter ruthlessness and total unsentimentality; it's no good keeping that poor doer. It will only raise feelings of failure and disgust every time you see it. Getting rid is good for your self-esteem.
Please take a look at the mystery plant below. Cue music -"Mystery plant, are you ready for your mystery plant?"
I need, how I need to do some of that myself. A plumber destroyed a large part of one garden last weekend (why thank you) but I need to do some 'constructive culling' of my own. And rather a lot of weeding.
ReplyDeleteFirst dry day this week, but v windy The ground is too soggy to walk on though. Out all tomorrow so Friday is looking like the first possibility.
We've had very little rain so far this spring, usually it buckets down for days - that's why my garden is so tidy, I've been able to get outside a lot. Sorry to hear about the destructive plumber, tradesmen (and I say men specifically) are not very sensitive souls as regards aesthetics or plant health.
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