I am now back home again and facing the 'aftermath' of several weeks away from garden chores.
Pictures of piles of garden rubbish are probably not the most exciting thing for you to view on internet. Sorry about that! I have several of these piles around our section at the moment waiting for our very obliging lawn mowing man to arrive and remove them.
This last weekend I could no longer bear the overgrown state of many of our plants and took to them with the loppers. In fact I could hardly get out the laundry door due to a Hydrangea that has grown taller than me, and wider than me too. Such a pity to cut it back as it is covered in beautiful blue flowers. The first photo shows the now visible door and the poor hacked apart plant. it was huge before I started and you could barely see the door. I will need to go back and tidy and shape it a little.
The other offending plant was a May shrub which had grown long branches in front of the garage door. I also pulled out Alstromerias which have finished flowering, self seeded swan plants (they attract the Monarch butterflys) that had grown in awkward places, cinnararias which are dead skeletons - I left them to dry off and go to seed so I will have lots of self seeded ones growing next winter, Moses-in-a-basket which needed thinning, some Dahlias which are looking tatty, dead fern fronds, leggy Fuschias, and a few other miscellaneous tatty looking plants that needed a trim and tidy up.
Amazing the carnage one can do with a pair of loppers.
8 comments:
Carnage, yes, but doesn't it feel GREAT?? I just love hacking things back... it's a great stress-reliever, and saves me taking it out on the Loved Ones!! Your plants will grow back fast and furious, no doubt.
Your garden is amazingly green, in spite of the heat and drought!! I'm very impressed.
I especially love the hydrangea... My maternal grandparents had an enormous blue-flowering shrub in front of their old house, and I have very fond memories of it. I still have a lovely photo of my elderly grandfather standing next to it and smiling shyly...
So glad you're home, Mrinz. Looking forward to more photos!!
xox CGF
Hi Candy.
Yes the plants respond to a reshaping and grow with renewed vigour. Very satisfying to look outside and se a tidier garden.
Hydrangeas are such 'old worldly' plants - my Grandad had a whole row of them and like you I associate them with elderly relatives. Hollyhocks also.
Hydrangeas grow very vigorously here and if you want to keep them down to a reasonable size it is better to grow dwarf varieties.
The drought doesnt show up too much here, everything has kept growing although the vege garden has suffered. Beans and tomatoes need lots of water.
Farmers are not happy though and are having to feed out hay and silage that they would rather keep for winter.
*sigh* It's lovely to be on vacation and get away from it all sometimes, but it's the post-vacation and the getting back into the swing of things that I'm not a fan of.
Welcome home, Mrinz :) BTW, I LOVE hydrangeas! My sister-in-law's wedding bouquet and bridesmaids' bouquets were all hydrangeas.
Lovely to see you back!
I have a hydrangea in my garden too. It's blue and gets bigger every year. I planted it in the wrong place but it seems to be happy there. Maybe you will inspire me to start taking photos of my 'less than green' fingered garden this spring?
Tismee I would LOVE to see pics of your garden!
Believe it or not - its good to be back!And an exciting time for us with our second son home in NZ for a month. He currently lives in London.
Our youngest son is leaving for the UK also in four weeks so we will have half our family in your country.
Hope he brings the lovley weather with him then!
Will definitely take some pics. Today was glorious again and I spent the 30 mins I take for lunch to go and see Freya were spent in the garden, tidying up!
Will try to take my own before & after pictures.
Productive gardening!
We have to actually plant things soon... it's just grass in our new backyard at the moment.
Tisme - looking forward to some before and after photos.
Ewe - wow - a blank canvas. I would love to start again with just a lawn and no planting. What fun I would have at the Garden Centre. We would have to take out a bank loan......!
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