Winter work in the shrubbery
Every item of outer clothing is draped in front of the fire and lightly steaming.
I hadn’t factored persistent drizzle on my list of outdoor jobs today. And now, only mid afternoon, I have given up.
Luckily it didn’t start until after my morning lope around the mountain.
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But that was the last glimpse of sun. Downhill all the way.
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Or if you are thinking of my germinating grass seeds all over the newly sown lawns and paths, marvellous soaking weather.
Except it’s too cold for things to really get going.
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//////////;, [cat on keyboard][
Luckily I p-[[[and now she has tried to knock over some rosemary in a tall vase on my desk I am trying to root. Ugh.]
Right. She is on the naughty step. I can write.
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Despite the drizzle, it is perfect pruning weather. All the shrubs in the shade garden have been tamed.
I could reduce their height. Or even play with the shapes and do some cloud pruning…. but every year this intention slips and I end up just giving them all a good short back and sides.
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There are an awful lot of them. And the viburnums in the barn garden are getting so tall I am risking life and limb to reach.
I just drop the pruning under the shrubs. And grudgingly rake the ones that fall on the paths.
But for the lavenders, I am obliged to rake as it’s so obvious that pale grey bits all over the lawns is a giveaway there is an untidy gardener about.
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I wonder if llamas eat lavender?
This is the very last shot of the beasts at the far end of the Dry Garden.
Now I will never find out. They have been rounded up and sent off to another llama farm to make some friends.
And I only have one pesky cat to worry about in the acres of green.
lp0-///// and right now back in my office. She was shrieking so much I had to relent.
You should see how cranky she gets in the potting shed when I turn my attention to seedlings and not to her.
Really, from a creature who used to live in a drainage ditch or a hollow tree stump in a forest just a few years ago to this great big whiny yowling indoor cry baby…