Off The Edge Gardening

Today was my last  day working at Spotty Dotty’s.  It was a tough decision but in the end it was too long a journey to make it a sensible proposition.  A day spent on my own, punctuated by very heavy showers, so vigorous George the cat didn’t even come out to say hello.  In honour of this sad event I would like to precis my short time at this garden.

I lost my camera and fell in some nettles, I chopped 5 million geraniums, I laughed at a Peppa Pig umbrella (broken), I tried not to fall down the slope, I fell down the slope, I got wet, I broke the pond, I loved the wisteria, I skulked in a corner so as not to look at the eclipse, I stroked George, I sang along with the disco chickens, I got ants in my pants,  I had fun, thank you all x

 

I think I may have fallen in love with a gecko called Maisie.

There are kniphofias and there are kniphofias…… this could run and run!

There are hydrangeas and there are hydrangeas!

Today Lionel asked me what I thought about when I was weeding.  This made me stop to think. In fact there may even have been one of those awkward silences.  Unusual.  A gap in the conversation doesn’t often happen when I am in the room.  It was a fair question, what do I think about when I am weeding. The weeds? The meaning of the universe?  The shopping list?  How to spend the £1 million Premium Bond win which will be waiting for me at home?   In truth I can’t remember thinking about anything much, except perhaps “surely not another bit of couch grass”.  We then spoke about meditation and I wondered if this intense working of the soil is in fact a form of that ancient discipline.  A time when the muddled brain has a chance to realign.  There have been many mysteries solved and problems resolved whilst weeding.

These Mountain Ash berries were providing an early feast for Mr Blackbird.  Better appreciate their tangerine beauty whilst we can.

All things come to those who wait.

You have got to admire this little lobelia, its pretty powder blue flower boldly growing through the mottled pink ajuga.

On the reverse of this lovely yellow pompom dahlia there is ….. another lovely yellow pompom dahlia.  This is most likely a case of fasciation, a curious phenomena which causes elongation and distortion of stems and flowers.  This anomaly could be caused by a genetic mutation, hormonal imbalance or even an infection, it is difficult to pinpoint.  I have never seen it take this form before, but as a mere beginner in the vagaries of the world this means little.   However, it would be remiss for me not to mention some suspicions I have had for a while.  There have been some strange goings on at The du Mauriers.  The odd muffled explosion from behind locked basement doors,  a fluorescent glow emanating from the greenhouse, regular deliveries from Boffins-r-Us, matching neck bolts; it might all be a coincidence but ……….

It is blue and it is a berry. It won’t be long before it is no longer a berry or blue.