List Ing

Argh, I’ve spent all afternoon working on a project that wasn’t on The List.   Let me pause right there and add the activity to the list and then gleefully cross it off.   What? You don’t do that to lists? Everyone cheats.   Or just massages the message.

And my message today was rosemary in two forms.   I had to go to town this morning, and dropped by the plant nursery that offers very competitively priced plants.   And they almost know me by now, so I’m allowed to go into the nursery on my own.

The site is larger than a football pitch, all full of wonderful plants. So you do have to take protection against drooling and greed.   I gave myself a budget of just 50 euros, and only came away 62 euros lighter.   Poor mental arithmetic, I know, but considering the temptations in front of me, that was a major restraint.

But that bought me 12 large prostrate rosemary plants, four tall officianalis ones and the impulse purchase of six little ballota plants.   Leslie had told me to look out for them at the entrance to the nursery on the sale table.   So I made sure to do a lap of that section as well.

They are titchy, and need potting up and nurtured over the winter.   But the rosemaries were all ready to go out.

It was sunny and cool this afternoon, with the occasional shower that had you racing for the last place you threw off the rain jacket. But the rain invariably stopped by the time you remembered where it was.   Perfect planting weather.

Oh for my camera to show you the plants. I’m very pleased to have been able to shoehorn them into the calabert garden, in among the stachys and lavenders and very snug they are indeed.   Prostrate rosemaries are great as they are evergreen, but not so blocky that they impede the rest of the plants.   And the added benefit is they flower profusely with little blue flowers in spring.   Or late winter and then get blasted with frost. Take your pick.

I added the four tall rosemaries to the top terrace of the potting shed bank. One is there already, and had time to do a quick weed of the now happy and plump hedge.   They have benefited from the inches of rainfall this past month.   And the scent from the eleagnus is still a delight.

We have two branches in a vase on our living room coffee table, and they are pumping out a delicate scent as I type. Who would have thought such an unremarkable shrub could present such a prize?

To make the most of this productive day, I nipped down to the potager and kept on pulling up weeds. If all goes well I shall plant myself in that part of the garden all day tomorrow and not come inside until it is in order.

And yes, I’ve just added that project to my task list.