I caught up with some friends last week. They were discussing films and mini series they’d seen. I couldn’t join in the conversation because I haven’t watched a film or mini series since last year. I’ve tried but failed. I’m in bed by 9.30 at the latest. Usually 9. That’s one of the things that I’ve had to give up with this flower growing lark. Late nights and the ability to concentrate on anything after 8 o’clock.

Everything I’ve done in the garden has been painstakingly slow. I’ve spent most of the week in the front garden weeding and making fences, interspersed with moments of self doubt along the lines of ‘people will think my flowers are stupid.’

Luckily these stupid flower moments don’t last long. Usually they’re interrupted by one of my team trying to jump over one of my new fences, or sitting on the very area I’m weeding or trying to eat one of the bits of driftwood that I use for garden edging.

Here’s a list of what I’ve been doing and thinking about last week.

I’ve been making low fences from bamboo and string to keep the team off the gardens.
Will the fences work?
I’ve noticed that thick mulch and damp soil make it easier to pull out couch grass.
Couch grass is an invasive weed in my garden. According to the RHS website it’s a great lawn grass and meadow grass. Apparently its leaves are food for caterpillars of some moths and butterflies (don’t know if this is the case for NZ moths and butterflies). It has nice flower and seed heads.
The daffodils I planted 2 years ago have started to flower.
Is it too early for daffs to flower?
I planted out lots of seedlings: pastel statice, blue nigella and blue cynoglossum (not sure that’s how you spell it).
I re-edged the front garden that borders the lawn. I lifted the driftwood and lay folded brown paper bags under it to suppress the weeds.

Here are the before and after photos of the front garden.

This is the magnificent orange gladiolus growing in the front garden. It’s an autumn flowering variety called Gladiolus natalensis

Our friend Paul (who built my greenhouse) installed the new water tank last week.

I spent a lot of Saturday potting up seedlings, watering seedlings and sowing seeds. As well as cleaning dirty trays ( I always put this job off until I trip over a pile of them on the way to the greenhouse).

This is the rose garden by the greenhouse. I grow my flowers in a proper cottage garden. It’s something I’ll write about this year. It’s my point of difference to many other flower growers. It makes up for the fact that I grow on a small scale.

Cottage gardens and cottage gardening have special characteristics. Different plants are crammed together. I grow a mixture of plants of differing heights. It means I can grow more plants in a small area. It also creates a habitat for critters. I figure if I mix up the plants (rather than having a monoculture) then I reduce the chance of pests dominating. I also make sure that each plant gets the sun or shade it needs. Healthy plants are less susceptible to diseases.

In this garden the roses are underplanted with spring bulbs, honesty and aquilegia. I also have an area of salvia plants at one end (I read that salvia is a good companion plant with roses, something about its chemical makeup helps repel pests).

There aren’t many flowers in the garden. Most are looking pretty scrappy. I managed to gather enough for a small bunch. Including some of the very early flowering daffodils and one of my new favourite chrysanthemums. I like the messy looking ones.

Here’s my Community Liaison team mate checking out the new fences. Let’s see if they hold.