An Epic Garden Struggle
Oct. 16th, 2010 04:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
endlessraritiesToday, I feel totally wasted.
Went out on the bike the morning, and did my usual twenty miler. It wasn't very nice. The weather was perfect, but just a mile into the run I started to feel weary. I made it the fifteen miles to the coffee shop, had my soup, mocha and cake, then died a thousand deaths within a hundred yards of leaving.
I presume it's the impact of the building survey work. For the last two weeks, I've been working on site for three days a week, and already I'm beginning to feel like I've been run through a mangle and hung up to dry.
To make matters worse, my weekend weeding stint for the day involved my leafy nemesis, George....
The reason for the name will soon become clear. Eleven years ago, when we first moved into this house, I had to embark on a mammoth programme of shrub clearance from the front flower beds. One of the shrubs in particular was a brute. I still don't know what it's called, unfortunately, because I'd recommend to all of you that you never, ever ever plant it in your garden. I called it 'George', because it's a bush with invasive, imperialist tendencies that just won't take 'no' for an answer...
George Junior was located on the right hand side of the garden. It took up half the flower bed, but we managed to eradicate it, after breaking two spades and a pickaxe. George Senior, on the left hand side, was less easy to remove. I tried to dig it up, but after a prolonged onslaught, George won. It still keeps sending satellites out to either side, and I'm now beginning to have difficulties with them, too, so.... After a ten year fight, I'm afraid we may have to... RESORT TO USING WEED KILLER!
And you can't get a bigger expression of failure than that.
I hate the thing, it has absolutely nothing going for it, and it's only one notch up from Japanese Knotweed in my estimation. So I guess it's time for drastic measures.
On the plus side, our garden was finally visited by a Red Admiral butterfly today. What's going on ? It's October!! Thankfully, we have a very late flowering shrub (this one I'd recommend, because all sorts of flying things love it, and it provides great dense cover for the birds during winter, but again I don't know its name, unfortunatley) which has been supplying our rather tardy visitor with nectar all afternoon.
The weather's getting slightly colder, but there's been no frosts to speak of. The rest of the country will probably get one tonight, but not us, of course. C'mon, Jack Frost!!! My begonias need you! Urgently!! Already, the horrid little grubs that feast on begonia corms will probably be munching their way through my prize specimens, and I can do nothing until the foliage is burned off for the winter. Last year, I had to break of the stalks because we still hadn't had a decent frost well into November. I hated doing this. The wounds oozed, and I felt I was being cruel to the poor things....
Pillars of the Earth is on the telly tonight. J is very pleased, because he loves the book. I'm not - I was looking forward to seeing The People Under The Stairs on DVD. Ah well. There's always next week...
Went out on the bike the morning, and did my usual twenty miler. It wasn't very nice. The weather was perfect, but just a mile into the run I started to feel weary. I made it the fifteen miles to the coffee shop, had my soup, mocha and cake, then died a thousand deaths within a hundred yards of leaving.
I presume it's the impact of the building survey work. For the last two weeks, I've been working on site for three days a week, and already I'm beginning to feel like I've been run through a mangle and hung up to dry.
To make matters worse, my weekend weeding stint for the day involved my leafy nemesis, George....
The reason for the name will soon become clear. Eleven years ago, when we first moved into this house, I had to embark on a mammoth programme of shrub clearance from the front flower beds. One of the shrubs in particular was a brute. I still don't know what it's called, unfortunately, because I'd recommend to all of you that you never, ever ever plant it in your garden. I called it 'George', because it's a bush with invasive, imperialist tendencies that just won't take 'no' for an answer...
George Junior was located on the right hand side of the garden. It took up half the flower bed, but we managed to eradicate it, after breaking two spades and a pickaxe. George Senior, on the left hand side, was less easy to remove. I tried to dig it up, but after a prolonged onslaught, George won. It still keeps sending satellites out to either side, and I'm now beginning to have difficulties with them, too, so.... After a ten year fight, I'm afraid we may have to... RESORT TO USING WEED KILLER!
And you can't get a bigger expression of failure than that.
I hate the thing, it has absolutely nothing going for it, and it's only one notch up from Japanese Knotweed in my estimation. So I guess it's time for drastic measures.
On the plus side, our garden was finally visited by a Red Admiral butterfly today. What's going on ? It's October!! Thankfully, we have a very late flowering shrub (this one I'd recommend, because all sorts of flying things love it, and it provides great dense cover for the birds during winter, but again I don't know its name, unfortunatley) which has been supplying our rather tardy visitor with nectar all afternoon.
The weather's getting slightly colder, but there's been no frosts to speak of. The rest of the country will probably get one tonight, but not us, of course. C'mon, Jack Frost!!! My begonias need you! Urgently!! Already, the horrid little grubs that feast on begonia corms will probably be munching their way through my prize specimens, and I can do nothing until the foliage is burned off for the winter. Last year, I had to break of the stalks because we still hadn't had a decent frost well into November. I hated doing this. The wounds oozed, and I felt I was being cruel to the poor things....
Pillars of the Earth is on the telly tonight. J is very pleased, because he loves the book. I'm not - I was looking forward to seeing The People Under The Stairs on DVD. Ah well. There's always next week...
