Not Much, Really!

What did I do today? Not much, really!

At first saying, it might sound as though I had a dull day, an unexciting day and, to a certain extent, I suppose that was the case but dull and and unexciting are perfectly fine with me. A day when nothing extraordinary happens is a good day.

Early morning light always shows this magnolias to best advantage. It is in view from where I sit in the house and encourages me to get up and go to the garden. Unlike the pink-flowered magnolias the yellow flowers show up very well against a grey sky. This morning’s blue sky served the purpose admirably also. Magnolia ‘Yellow Lantern’

One of my favourite plants, first seen growing in the garden of the late Mrs. Rosemary Brown, Old Connaught Avenue, Bray. She had a beautiful specimen which lead us to plant our young tree alone, as a specimen, Malus floribunda

It was a good day; good weather, warm and we pottered away in the garden. Yes, it was a pottering day today; not a day with a purpose to our gardening. There was no goal, no project to be finished; just a little light pottering.

We have been working in the garden all week, thanks to the wonderful weather of late, and are on top of our job! Today was a day for just gardening. I cleared the old dry foliage from around the base of a big astelia – why did we ever put an astelia in the garden. We had some years ago and got rid of them. I think this present one came as a gift and I imagine that is why the Head Gardener has allowed it. It is planted against the children’s playhouse, an out of the way place, not prominent but not quite thrown out.

Anemone nemerosa ‘Lucy’s Wood’ which was found in a wood near Bunclody, Co. Wexford by Evelyn Mary Booth (1897-1988) and named after her own garden, “Lucy’s Wood”. She wrote a Flora of Co. Carlow.

Erythronium ‘Pagoda’, as all the erythroniums, have a very attractive form and are very attractive when caught in a shaft of sunlight.

The white form of Dicentra spectabilis has a delicacy about it fitting for a flower with the common name, “Lady in her bath.”

I spread a little bark on a footpath, a spare bag left over from last year, and then lifted, split and replanted a few primulas, garden seedlings which I like and wanted to bulk up to see how they do in coming years. Given the heat of the day, they had to be very well watered and I’m glad to hear that we will have rain tomorrow which will help them along.

One of the garden seedling primulas which I lifted, split and replanted today. It is a semi-double form of the native primrose. 

At lunchtime, I finished a jig-saw puzzle, a woodland view of a waterfall. Well, actually, Mary put in the last piece so I should admit that she finished it.

Finished!

The potted dahlia tubers in the glasshouse are growing well and demand regular watering as do the 100 or so Iris unguicularis plants we potted up last summer. The rope of the clothes line had withered and frayed and I replaced it in the late afternoon. A group of cowslips caught my eye – the light hit them nicely – and I went for my camera and that brought any thoughts of further “work” to a close.

A group of Primula veris looking well today.

So, what did I do today? Nothing much, really but it was a very pleasant day, a day well spent enjoying the sweetness of doing nothing but still getting a lot done. I hope to have many more such days.

Paris incompleta, a plant I look forward to each year and which is beginning to bulk up well after several years.

An especially treasured plant in the garden, a yellow-flowered form of Trillium chloropetalum named for a dear friend and wonderful gardener, Bob Gordon.