Saturday: Sometimes I feel we are at odds with others when it comes to protecting our gardens from harm. We have the deliberate vandals who tear plants out of planters, the thoughtless destroyers who trample through public gardens, and then the other workers: painters, pressure washers, roofers, many of whom seem to have no idea that they could perhaps work around rather than on top of our plants. For example, yesterday we showed up to do some pruning at a commercial job and found a pressure washing gang was on the roof and had done THIS with their hose:
SO unnecessary. Meanwhile, two empty bottles of bleach lay in the garden, but when Allan asked the workers what was in the overspray that was hitting all the plants, the pressure washing dudes said guilelessly: “Just water!” Yup. This is the same job where the painters put saw horses right on top of plants, when there was plenty of concrete space to set up shop on.
We did some of our pruning, then hightailed it out of there to get to the dump on time. I could also grumble that I wish the dump had longer hours (especially on weekdays when closing at 4.30 makes it mighty hard for us non-morning people to get rid of our yard waste)…but instead will go on to the waking up of my favourite garden, Klipsan Beach Cottages, where there are already some little beauties in bloom.
The A Frame is the largest rental cottage at KBC and has its own garden which will be increasingly rich with bulbs as the spring comes on.
In the deer proof garden which we created at KBC some years ago (this being one of our oldest jobs), we cut back Sedum spectabile and grasses, chopped a freeze-blasted potted striped Phormium to its base, and fretted over Melianthus major ‘Antenow’s Blue’: will it return? We fiercely hacked a Clematis that was all messy at the top. Perhaps I took out a few frustrations from the start of the day on that Clematis and Phormium…
There’s excitement brewing as another section of garden is soon to be fenced by owner Denny so that Mary’s fruit trees will be protected from deer. Our KBC Facebook page has loads of photos of the garden throughout the year.
Sunday: back to the Raymond Federal Bank job, where the pressure washing gang was gone. We are doing a lot of pruning there as the new manager (or perhaps the owner) does not so much like the lush sort of garden that I prefer. This led to much contemplation during the day of how much I am willing to compromise, with perhaps ten years of full time work required before I can retire (should I ever want to partially retire). I am getting to the point of quitting any job I do not love. Fortunately, I still love most of them, and this one still has potential; the manager is a pleasant sort, and we did find some points to agree on, such as getting rid of a gawdawful yucca last fall.
Oh, will WordPress let me type in between these two photos? That would be awesome. Here’s one garden bed before and after trimming the ornamental grasses…
The removal of these pines turns this into NOT a garden area, or as my former partner, Robert, used to say, a “Zeroscape” (his wordplay on Xeriscape).
This is, however, fine with me, as the pines were planted (not by me) in such a way that required a frequent amount of unattractive pruning to make the sign visible.
Allan would like you to see the size of stump he removed from just one of those pines, with a pick, a small electric chainsaw, and brute force. Does he grumble? Not as much as I. I feel guilty sometimes that I assign him the worst tasks, but what a sense of accomplishment they bring! And I remind both of us that I have been doing physical work since I was 20, whereas he did spend some of those years in college classrooms and sit-down jobs…
The antics of a neighbour kitty lightened the tedium of chopping and clipping the grasses and sedums:
Kitty was intent on pulling and pestering the grasses….all around a cut-back clump of catmint, of course.
Finally, I’ll leave you with the kitty face that made my day complete.
Who can grumble when provided with such entertainment?
Kitty looks like he/she was having some fun there, what a face of mischief!
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Cute cat face . . . awwww!
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