"Hello. Would you like your front garden tidied?"
Oh dear.
If only the chap had come by in February, when the dwarf irises pierced through the soil and early crocuses offered their throats to the sunny skies.
Or April, when tulips and forget-me-nots waltzed together in the borders. Or May, when the Centaurea exploded like blue fireworks.
Or June and July, when the peonies managed to dodge the rains and flowered like the most plumptious of scented pompoms.
Where was he in August? Aster 'Monch' was the star of the show.
In September and October, other asters took over, to the delight of bees, hoverflies and butterflies. In November, Japanese anemones were still flowering.
Even a couple of weeks ago, the garden was shining. Frost scintillating on spent flowerheads and on evergreen foliage.
And then it rained. For a couple of weeks. Sparkling flowerheads offering their seeds up to goldfinches have turned to brown mush. Cardoon and Japanese anemone foliage has slumped and blackened. Fuchsia leaves have dropped.
And someone offers to tidy my garden.
Oh dear. For now, I'll continue to watch the goldfinches, blackbirds and wrens foraging through the sodden udergrowth for food. And then I'll get round to a bit of tidying. Probably.
5 comments:
Don't worry. It'll all come round again. And even again. Lots more times to see.
Have a very happy Christmas (all three of you) and all the best for 2013.
Lucy
Hahaha...I feel the same way...right now, the garden definitely looks pretty sad...our constant rain really batters my garden...and you're right, soggy seed heads & grasses aren't as pretty as dry ones gleaming in sunlight!
I'm sure Sharon that you already know that a tidy garden is bad for wildlife:
http://patientgardener.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/to-tidy-up-or-not
There's even a be nice to nettles week:
http://www.nettles.org.uk
Oh my, that's too funny. Any untidiness in my garden is wonderfully hidden by an extra deep blanket of snow right now. Like a quilt spread over a rumpled bed, there are just mounds of rounded snow here and there.
Hi Lucy - you are, of course, right. And a very happy Christmas to you and your family, too. Thnaks for visiting.
Hi Scott - it's funny, when herbaceous borders in winter feature in magazines, they only ever take the photos on a frosty day. Never a ran-sodden, wind-lashed day. Oh well.
Bill - of course. And it's always a good excuse. ANd the nettle thing is great, as it means I can feel better about the clump growing att he back of the border, which I never have the courage to venture forth and pull up.
Northern Shades - snow hides a thousand sins, but I'm sure that your garden looks great without it.
To be honest, the front garden is a mess at the moment, having had not a lot of maintenance for 12 months (hard to bend when heavily pregnant, then a little one takes quite a lot of time and attention which otherwise might be spent on tidying). There are plans for a a big tidy and replant, removing some of the plants which have grown a little too vigourously/spread a little too rapidly.
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