Mission creep

artur drinkingI thought cats weren’t supposed to like water.  Proof postive that Artur is an odd cat. He is standing in a few inches of water, happily purring and occasionally drinking.  Very odd indeed.  And he loves to chose from a different selection of depths.   So not only do I have to supply him with various nests for sleeping, now it’s pots for drinking.

Well, you can hardly hear me complaining, I love his company, even if he is eccentric.

I started the day with a quick consulation of my long list. And promptly set out to do two things that weren’t on the list at all. Talk about mission creep.

I had about a square metre of a gap at the end of my newly transplanted festuca bed on the top side of the shade garden. I ran out of oomph when it came to the hundred (was it that many? More?) of grasses I had dug up and moved into this position late last year. yet more festuca

But I knew it wouldn’t stay a pristine bare earth gap for much longer. Spring must turn up soon. And so too the weeds. So out came the wonky fork, and up to the top terrace I went. I managed to unearth about 20 more plants and put them into position. It’s easily the most fun you can have in a garden. It’s an instant transormation.

final festucaAnd I have made it to the end of the thirty feet of garden. Hurrah. And to celebrate I have positioned the thyme plants that should be going down onto the plum terrace into a design up here in the shade garden.

This is my solution to the long narrow beds. I had first thought it would be lovely to have box balls doing these long sweeps of green. But I didn’t drive down to the plant nursery to pick them up. And I had these thyme plants in the shed. thyme position

I won’t plant more than one row up right now.   We are still having cold temperatures of only plus 8C in the daytime and 0C at night. So I’ve planted out ten and will have a look and see how they do with the cold weather.

There are thirty seven plants in this area, and I will need at least 18 more. Along with the 53 I planned to put down in the plum terrace.

file thyme 1It’s exhausting just doing the mental arithemetic, let alone trying to find that many plants in any of the Valence nurseries at the moment.

But it was fun. And it breaks up the monotony of the festucas. I put them there to save myself a mighty headache of weeding.  And hope this will make it look less dull and slightly more designed.

So did I do anything from the list today after playing with the placement of pots? I kept on with the cutting back of the grasses. pannicum before

The first one done was the mighty pannicum Squaw in the courtyard. This grass always looks completely dead until about April; three weeks longer than is comfortable. I think it dies each year. Then I turn my back or go away for a week, and it is gloriously green and resplendent again.

pannicum afterSo here’s hoping this very cold winter hasn’t killed it for real.

I finally got round to finishing off the gaura project. The thick plants came out of the calabert bed, and went behind the huge miscanthus grasses down on the pool garden, and up near the wildflower garden. I have no idea if they will thrive; they had rather thick tap roots which don’t look like they will take to uprooting and moving. But we shall see.

And the good news is that I now can see my calabert garden properly. I have to move half of the eragrostis grasses that are too close to the lavenders.  But that won’t happen until next week at the earliest. And it gave me a chance to do a spot of weeding; I never can reach this far back into the stones for all the plants in the way. gaura cleared

But goodness, I need to get some mulch down on these plants rather fast. I see some chipping coming along.