Christmas
December 31, 2008
Hope everyone had a festive Christmas. We enjoyed the company of Liz, Ian and Mathew for the day. Mathew is a wonderful story teller and kept us all entertained with tales of his interesting and alternative life. The Christmas pudding went down a treat but it was too much for his lordship who ate a substancial portion then fell asleep under the Christmas tree for a few hours.
We had our best Christmas tree ever, stolen of course from where all Tasmanians steal their trees and decorated beautifully by our friends six lovely children. Santa was exceptionally kind to me this year but also practical. The gifts this year really represent how much my life has changed since we moved here. My favourites were the ones people had made for me. Liz sewed an apron for me, Mathew gave me a exquisite painting and dish brushes he makes from reeds, I was also given hand made soap and a hand knitted dish cloth from our good friends.
Liz and Ian also gave me a hedge trimmer - vroom vroom - which is only going to encourage me to plant more hedges. Luckily Sharon gave me a heap of hedge plants, thanks Sharon!!! His lordship presented me with a stainless steel garden set, trowels, spade, fork etc and the least practical gift but very exciting, tickets to see my beloved Leonard Cohen. Hallelujah.
Liz and Ian stayed for a few days after Christmas. We got stuck into the garden (we also got stuck into the wine, chocolate and christmas leftovers). We all gutted the old chook shed then Ian and his lordship converted it into three compost bays. Brilliant work. I now have a very fancy compost system which is protected from the rain. This is great to stop the nutrients leaching from the heaps during heavy down pours.
Liz and I attacked the weeds and there was a lot of them. We also heaved out loads of iris plants. I decided I didn’t like them, the flowers look like dirty tissue paper and they were everywhere. After we cleared a few gardens and took out unwanted plants I was amazed how much better the garden looks. It’s such an old fashioned planting scheme here and I find most of the plantings have not taken into consideration pleasing colour combinations. Especially the roses, most of them just down right clash. I’ve decided to be ruthless. If it doesn’t work it has to go, I’m going to simplify the planting and concentrate on plants that produce food.
I’m working on the round garden in front of the house. I’ve torn out all the rhododendrons (I don’t like them either - obviously) and everything else, In fact I now have a blank canvas. I want this area to be elegant and formal. Box hedges, white roses and terracotta planters with citrus. Most of the bed is north facing with a wall behind it so the citrus should do well there and if they’re in pots I can move them if needed.
Anyhoo, there’s still a lot of weeding to do so I’m back to it. Happy New Year everyone.
