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.
But that was the last glimpse of sun. Downhill all the way.
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.
//////////;, [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.
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.
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.
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…
