Jolly July

actual ice

We’ve made it to real Winter and are certainly experiencing the best and worst of it. Up until today (15th) we had an unprecedented run of perfect Winter weather, with 8 days of frosty mornings and still sunny days. We’ve already had more frosts this year than any in my immediate memory, with several mornings tipping the scales at 0 deg or less. Good news for destruction of fungus and bug pests, less good news for the many slightly hardy plants we grow, but I’m sure they’ll get over it!

frosty world

Sadly today has given way to wind and rain and whilst the temperatures are supposedly warmer, they don’t feel warm when you’re out in it, that’s for sure!

Winter projects are under way in both our gardens. My projects mostly involve trying to get control of small parts which have been abandoned to the buttercup all year. Over at Alice’s, she and Aaron have been making new paths and opening outlooks, always improving things… She has sadly decided at this stage of her life (the fecund chapter) she has to give up the herb garden for something a bit more manageable. Maybe when the children have grown up a bit and go to school she’ll be able to re-invent it, but the nature of herbs is very wild and thence the control of them very time consuming!

Back over my side, I’m as usual waiting for the fencer. This time to move a fence in the carpark which is going to open up an area behind the nursery for necessary rose garden extension…I seem to keep getting more! Whilst I have several spots in the old border where a rose has been moved or sadly one has died, they just don’t seem like spots anymore, with the march of the perennials and the reach of the greedy buxus hedges.

I find if you plant roses and young buxus together they muddle along perfectly fine, the rose gets it’s roots deeper I think, but planting a new rose alongside an established hedge is always going to be a battle for it. The roots of the buxus travel for much further than the height of the hedge, I think because if you’d never trimmed it, it would now be about twice as high, and the roots are like tree roots i.e. comparative in size to the plant. People often don’t realise that left to it’s own devices, box makes a decent sized tree.

So these “ex-spots” are fine for a tough, established once flowerer to be planted, as anything that only has to make one big effort per year can get by with a lot less in  the way of spoiling. Unfortunately most of aforesaid are big and unruly, so no good at the front of the border…hence, these ex spots will be taken over by invasive but beautiful perennials and I have to make a new garden. Sigh.

As you may oy may not know, I have done my usual and let July get away on me without finishing the story. It’s the 29th now, so I better get my skates on and finish this tonight. It is raining a lot, after another lovely fine bout of weather. I think this (so far) has possibly been the best set of seasons I can ever remember. I hope the last month of Winter doesn’t do the dirty on me…

The growth has carried on and the animals are getting by with minimal feed out. The trees seem to think it’s Spring, all my magnolias are in full bloom and the daffodils are crazy. Very happy bulbs about, I think they appreciated all the rain we had since they last flowered, well interspersed with warming sun… I wish the deciduous trees would get their skates on…I always heave a sigh of relief when the willows sart budding up, as I can then be confident the possums will keep away from the roses.

I have another pest problem to add to the present mix, which is a plague of rabbits. They are in some ways more problematic than possums, as they are near impossible to shoot and don’t go in Timm’s traps. They are less “rose leaf” obsessed than possums, and obviously don’t climb, but can be death to basal shoots. Luckily there is one thing they can’t abide and that’s daggy sheeps wool, so the latest job has been the spreading of a tractor trailer load of dags and fleece from the woolshed across the road. It is the best product possible, in that it fertilises, mulches and keeps rabbits away. The down side is it looks pretty mank and can smell a bit at times! You’ve just gotta do what you gotta do.

The days are stretching perceptibly and the chooks are getting into a heavy laying routine, Winter will be a thing of the past in 4 weeks, so it’s full steam ahead for Spring! First Open Day scheduled for September 8th (the nursery will be bursting!) and the countdown to the excitement of seeing lots of new roses for the first time.

Can’t wait!!!