This month seems to have whizzed by in record time. For me it both began and ended with a cold – with perhaps five or so days respite in between. We’ve had flood induced visitors (at one point, there were four adults, two kids, a dog and a pair of goldfish residing at our house) and done lots and lots and lots of planting in our new garden…
Adam and I have spent hours outdoors over the last few weeks. Every spare moment, whether it be in rain, hail or shine, we’ve been outside prepping garden beds, planting new little plants and then watching them closely for positive signs of growth. For the moment, we think we’ve finished with the planting – we need to see how things establish now – so that’s an immensely satisfying thought.
All of our new garden beds feature perennial plants – we wanted to plant for longevity. In our expansive front garden beds, which are south facing we’ve gone heavy on salvias, grasses, alliums and phloxes, with a good mix of other hardy plants that can tolerate Wagga’s frosty winters and scorching summers – think lavender, achillea, lamb’s ear and catmint. Our little herb and vegetable plot is coming along nicely and we should be able to pick our first strawberries within weeks – something Paul is very excited about. Our shade loving back garden is starting to look more settled, with its mix of hydrangeas, clematis, lamium, violets and hellebores. I suspect the hydrangeas have picked up bacterial leaf spots thanks to the rain, but they’re flowering and we’ve been told they still look healthy, so fingers crossed.
Both Adam and I like to take a quick wander round the garden after Paul’s gone down for the night. Not only is the light just beautiful at that time of day, but it’s nice to see little green plants in place of the dirt that’s surrounded our house for months. We still don’t have a back lawn (most of Wagga’s turf farms have been affected by flooding) but we’re still hopeful that will go down before Christmas.
As mentioned last month, we did make it to Ladysmith Park Perennials a few weeks ago and left with not only a boot full of plants, but lots of hope that perhaps we’re creating a similar sort of oasis in our garden.
With the garden now feeling like it’s under control, it’s time to concentrate on the next project – Christmas.
Have a wonderful few weeks, I’ll catch you next month.
M. x
Wattle and Ash 