The rain is back. Even as I lay in bed I knew it was by the sheer
darkness of the morning.
Yesterday our gardener did turn up. Her husband came to collect her
afterwards. He commented how lightly our garden had got off in the storms. I
couldn’t help commenting that was largely due to the hard work his wife had
just done, tidying the place. He should have seen it when she had arrived.
We’ve now got a large green bin full of debris. The flowers in our
lounge have become a delphinium, white with a navy centre, & a large deep
red peony. The latter has bright yellow stamens, made all the brighter by the
richly coloured petals. The scent is heavy & intoxicating. I never realised
just how big the flowers were when they were just in the garden among so many
other plants. Now I know this flower is at least saucer-sized.
The gardener also started to plant up some new plants into the borders
around the silver birch trees. The centre of the circle is going to be
artificial grass but the edge is going to be a spot of colour. I’m pleased to
see some poppies there.
I’d asked her the previous week to just buy anything she thought would
be appropriate, to treat the garden as her own. She looks at garden centres
& plant stalls every week. It takes a mammoth effort for us to get to a
garden centre to look, by which time the patch she’d cleared would once more be
weed-strewn. That’s not to say we won’t buy any plants we see & take a
fancy to. There are still plenty of bare patches in the garden that would
benefit with filling.
I’m coming to the conclusion, having a garden is a tremendous money
drain. There always seems to be things that need getting – plants, tools, fertilisers,
feed, compost … We rarely manage to escape a garden centre without spending the
best part of a hundred pounds. I’m trying to buy mainly perennials so that
hopefully the costs will go down as they bush out & even need subdividing.
However, it is nice to plant some annuals just to bring a little variety from year
to year. And the garden does give us both such pleasure.
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