Nearly two weeks ago I abandoned several green garden buckets, an old compost bag full of hellebore leaves and weeds waiting to go to the dump, and a black plastic flower pot a quarter full of stones at the bottom of the back garden, and the step ladder on the grass path half way down the slope. I didn't intend to leave them there for so long. At the time I assumed I'd be back the next day to carry on where I left off, but in the event I had a cold and the weather turned colder, and so they stayed where they were, and I stayed indoors as much as possible. I could see the compost bag, the pot and one of the buckets from the bathroom window and they irritated me each morning, as being eyesores in their own right and reminders of jobs not done.
It is very easy to get into the habit of leaving stuff lying around the garden. Back in my Writtle days when I had a summer job with a garden maintenance company, one of the gardens we tended always had a litter of tools scattered across the patio, along with half used bags of compost and hoses not put away. We dutifully moved the bird bath off the lawn so that we could mow it and then put it back, but it never seemed to occur to them that the cheapest and easiest way they could make their garden look better in about fifteen minutes was simply to clear the mess up.
This morning, as the grass was not frosted and my nose was not running so much, I put the ladder back by the dustbins at the side of the house, pending the moment when I would finish pruning the holly I was anticipating trimming when I got it out in the first place, and emptied the Systems Administrator's latest harvest of sawn firewood out of one of the wheelbarrows so that I could go and collect the buckets and the bag. The garden immediately looked better for it, though my nose began to stream again and I retreated back inside.
I noticed in passing that the Japanese almond Prunus mume 'Beni-chidori' was studded with little dark pink flowers. It was a good display, especially considering how terrible the leaves looked last year and the year before. They suffer badly from attack by some sort of sap sucking insect, which turns them puckered, distorted and alarmingly small. Each time I notice I am seized with dismay and guilt and wonder if I should have sprayed it, except that I really don't like using insecticides outdoors. I don't understand why the great tits can't keep the leaves clean like they do for every other bush in the garden, and it makes me wonder if whatever bug is spoiling the apricot even lives out in the open, or burrows around inside the leaves. In the late summer the bottom half of the tree is engulfed in a tide of perennial sweet pea, so one way and another it's a pleasant surprise to find that it is alive and flowering, even the lower branches.
I also noticed that its stake had rotted at the base so that it was being supported by the tree rather than the other way round. Maybe 'Beni-chidori' no longer needs a stake. It is leaning slightly, but towards the prevailing wind which is odd of it.
The witch hazels are still flowering. I ought to go and look at them properly, if only it were slightly less cold and my nose did not run so much as soon as I step out of the house That's one way in which coloured stems and attractive bark can be a better bet than flowers for winter gardens. At least the stems last all winter, whereas with some flowers if you catch a cold for the critical couple of weeks you could miss them.
No comments:
Post a Comment