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Will you be having them over for dinner? LOL. |
| Growit Posted on Thursday, January 10, 2008 - 04:51 pm: |   |
That feels so much better having got that off my chest.
The main reason for my hatred of these devil creatures is the destruction they have wreaked on the newly planted border in Cs garden. I planted all the plants I know they won't eat or at least don't like the taste of so might just chew a little. Is that what they did? No it bloody (scuse my French) well isn't. The Euphorbias had all their tops nipped off and then all the roots pulled out of the soil and dumped on top!! Why? I'll tell you why, cos devil bunnies think "If you ain't gonna plant something I like then I'm just gonna destroy what you do plant for the hell of it Hahaha!"
They...I say 'they' but I think it is just one particular bunny that does all the damage...also tore out all the Campanulas, Veronicas and Shastas and dumped those on the top, chewed all the new growth off of the Echinaceas (chewed them off, didn't eat them just chewed them off) and for some unknown reason pulled out two of the plastic plant labels (the ones they come with that has a picture on) from the daylilys and chewed them to pieces. This border is supposed to look amazing come June for Cs 40th birthday. Fat chance of that. The other gardens I work in suffer from rabbits but have nowhere near this amount of damage. I now want to buy a gun and sit in her garden all day and all night until I have severely depleted the rabbit population. The darn things are not native to this country so I have no qualms about blasting a few to smithereens. Problem is, it isn't my garden and C is no gardener. I get mad but she doesn't even notice. I went back to work after having been away for three weeks and she had no idea all this damage had been wreaked because she doesn't look. It seems so bizarre to me. I notice every little nuance in my own garden. I am in it everyday, sometimes just for a few minutes in the morning but in it nonetheless. Why do I get mad then?
Because it is my reputation on the line. |
| Growit Posted on Thursday, January 10, 2008 - 04:53 pm: | |
 Funny! Actually I hate the taste of rabbit. |
Wow, bad rabbit(s)! Have you considered planting a trap crop? Don't even know if that would work, but since C doesn't seem to notice things, she might think that the trap crop is just part of the garden as you meant it to be. For that matter, maybe she wouldn't even notice net or wire over the garden until the things got big enough that the rabbits weren't interested in tearing off the tender bits.
I had a boyfriend once who spotted some rabbit pelts hanging in my Mom's garage (long story). He decided to be funny and shove his hand up inside one and use it as a hand puppet. They were rather freshly skinned, so you can imagine the look on his face when he discovered how wet and cold and gooey they were inside. LOL. |
| Growit Posted on Thursday, January 10, 2008 - 05:40 pm: | |
Well that was yesterdays work. Today was completely different because, of course, it is Thursday  Favourite garden day.
Majorly windy today. One of those 'turn your brolly inside out days.' I love it! I love the noise and the swaying of the trees. The little tornadoes of leaves swirling around. The birds trying desperately to fly in one direction only to be blown completely in the opposite direction.
Weather warm so time to plant some more. Finished a border first thing then, still playing catch up, planted the already sprouting Narcissus and Irises. Dug up a Euonymous and moved it away from a Pittosporum into the newly dug border along with a Euphorbia, some unidentifiable Narcissus moved from somewhere else, Ajuga and a Mahonia. Next job was to level the site of the old bonfire. Some I dug into the new border, some into the compost heap and some I used to build up a dip in the garden.
S worked with me all morning and we had coffee with mince pies in the garage much to the annoyance of her older sister M. She didn't think it was very ladylike LOL!
Carried on planting. Put, in various areas of the garden; Melissa, Peppermint, Applemint, Verbena bonariensis, Kalmia, Ligularia, variegated Lysimachia and any other bulbs that were not yet mouldy.
By lunchtime it had started to rain but not heavily. I am dressed for whatever the weather has to throw at me (plastic from head to toe...attractive!) but S wasn't and had to go in to warm up. I had mentioned going through the RHS bible and writing her a list of the plants she needed to buy rather than her method; Buying loads of plants she likes the look of and then trying to find somewhere to plant them.
Well picture this. I am sat in the garage, dressed in plastic and covered in mud, eating my lunch, flicking through their stack of old magazines when S comes in with said RHS bible in her hand dressed in a pink nightdress, pink dressing gown, fluffy slippers, her sisters' woolly hat and a trenchcoat! I just wet myself. How bizarre we must have looked. Wish I had taken my camera today.
Sorted out a list of plants that she is 'allowed' to buy. A nice mix of shrubs and perennials to go on the right side of the garden which is mainly dry shade. Spent an hour or so clearing up leaves and twigs off of the lawn and came home...Oh and today I saw Big fish and not quite so big fish in the brook. (I think they were spawning.) Pheasant two robins, flock of geese, sparrowhawk and a mouse. |
| Growit Posted on Thursday, January 10, 2008 - 05:52 pm: | |
DJ the border (Island border)is enormous. Any trap crop would cost her a fortune because of the quantities I would have to buy. Same problem covering it with netting. She wanted it BIG! |
| Growit Posted on Thursday, January 10, 2008 - 05:54 pm: | |
YUK! Loverly. |
| Growit Posted on Thursday, January 10, 2008 - 07:10 pm: | |
So as I don't forget. I won trivia yesterday. Hurrah!!!! |
I liked your story. Gorgeous imagery. I can see it, practically even smell it.
Roaringly funny! Pfft!
I think I might have, too. LOL!
Love it.
Oh, yay, good job!! I can't do trivia to save my life. I do know some totally useless things, but apparently they are beyond totally useless because I never see any trivia questions that I can actually answer. LOL! |
| Growit Posted on Friday, January 11, 2008 - 05:33 am: | |
Ta very much. You are right, windy days do have a particular smell to them.
LOL! |
| Growit Posted on Friday, January 11, 2008 - 05:42 am: | |
Friday so no work (paid) today. I did have someone ask me about doing a consultancy though. First one of the year, excellent!
Son no. 1 better and back at college. Son no. 2 still not well, he seems to have a bit of a secondary infection in his chest going on now. He has always been the sickly one of my two, mainly because he doesn't get enough sleep.
My SIL is coming round later today to give me another photoshop lesson. This time on image resizing so I can print off some pictures to use as 'Thankyou' cards for my Christmas presents. Apart from that the usual housework and stuff and MUST sort some paperwork. New years resolution; Don't let it pile up! |
| Flowerfreak Posted on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 - 03:11 pm: | |
Glad I am not the only one!
How are you doing on this resolution thus far?!! I know that is what I need to do too...so far so good. It is hard to keep up with it all though! |
| Growit Posted on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 - 05:02 pm: | |
Darn! I have been caught. Did I say I had paperwork to do? Sure I didn't. OK you got me. No I didn't do any mainly because my hubby was free to take my car to get it fixed. I needed him to give me a lift back and then take me to pick it up. The thermostat had gone, freezing in my car, boiling in the engine...not good. Seemed a good idea to do the shopping for the weekend while we were out and then we had to pop in for a coffee at a friends house and before you knew it day gone! No time for any paperwork.
thats my excuse and I am sticking to it |
| Flowerfreak Posted on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 - 07:21 am: | |
Well no more excuses, get filing! lol
The paperwork will still be there-forever if you let it- friends won't! Kudos for enjoying yourself & visiting a friend instead of working! |
*SNORT!* It's such an involved excuse, it must be true. LOL!
Love it! Now that's a motto to live by.
Again, another journal I have missed out on lately. Weird. I think the Twilight Zone is expanding.
(Oy! I typed this up, previewed it, then closed the window before I posted it. Let's not try for twice in a row here... carefully now... carefully...) |
| Growit Posted on Monday, January 28, 2008 - 01:15 pm: | |
Interesting day today.
Began like any other day. Hubby brought me a cup of tea in bed, drank it, got up, shouted at the kids to get up, went in the kitchen to put the kettle on for second cup of tea, went into the bathroom to clean my teeth and saw my face in the mirror...Argghh!!!
Let me backtrack for a moment...
Yesterday was sunny and ridiculously warm for January. My garden has been neglected far too much lately because of our hideously wet Winter. By 9.30am I had cleaned the kitchen, bathroom and our bedroom, sorted and washed several loads of washing and feeling suitably smug about my superb and superfast housework skills I announced that I would be in the garden all day and everyone else could just get on without me!
Bliss. I tidied and weeded and cutback all the stuff I had not done in the Autumn. I even divided and transplanted several things...in January! All my clematis had shoots several inches long. They all needed cutting hard back. (Got lots of cuttings, hope they take.) Chatted with my neighbour the other side of the fence whilst doing this and passed some cuttings over to her.
I then went and sat by my pond and contemplated my navel, well, not exactly, but I might as well have done. My pond has been the bane of my life. I gave it the wrong aspect and I put fish in it when I should have thought about the fact I have a cat and now I just don't know what to do about the planting. I cannot plant with tall plants on the sunny end as I have put a seat there and there is not enough space, plus you would be facing a wall of foliage. What would be the point of that? I fenced all around the pond to keep the cat out and made the flags narrower so if he straddled the fence it would be too precarious for him to even think about catching a fish. The problem with that is he can still get access from the bog runoff end and I have seen him several times straddle the fence there although I have not seen him catch anything. BUT I have only seen my large white fish. I have not seen any of the others! I cannot put tall plants that end to stop him getting in as that end is planted with my "I like a bit of moisture but full sun" plants and if I plant in front they won't get enough sun!
Was it a bad idea taking the net off so the frogs would live? Has my cat eaten my fish? Has a heron eaten my fish? What am I going to do about the planting?....Ugghh. Having resolved nothing I went back to weeding and tidying....around my Euphorbias.
In all the years that I have spent gardening they have never caused me a problem. I know the sap is caustic and can cause photosensitivity. I always wear gloves when gardening. I am very careful when cutting them in anyway and wash any exposed bits of my arms etc. when there is even a remote possibility that I might have got some on me. I was weeding around them, not cutting anything.
I have long unruly hair and even though the sun was shining it was very windy. Strands of my hair kept whipping me in the face and, inadvertently, seemed to end up in my mouth so I wiped them away with the back of my glove...
Monday morning, face in mirror...Arrggh! I must have damaged a stem somehow and got sap on my gloves. I have blisters on both cheeks, the left one being the worst. One large blister and then a track about an inch long of tiny blisters. I also had one near my mouth on one corner but today that burst! I think I forgot and must have rubbed it. My doctor said to keep it clean (HAH! In my line of work!) and try not to burst anymore especially the large one. I have a large (needs splitting, must do that soon) Aloe vera plant. I am sitting here typing with a leaf of said plant split open, chopped into the shape of a plaster and slapped on each cheek. I was lucky today that it was overcast or I would not have been able to work as the burns are caused by light sensitivity from the sap. So I have now learnt;
A) What burns from Euphorbia look and feel like.
B) That I am photosensitive to the sap.
C) That there is very little that can be done about burns on your face. (Quote from doctor "comeback if it becomes infected") |
| Dee_b Posted on Monday, January 28, 2008 - 02:04 pm: | |
That sounds so painful Moira.
I do try to garden with gloves myself, especially when cutting back the euphorbias, but I wasn't aware of light causing the sensitivity...must be more careful in future.
I've got a vision in my minds eye of you sitting there with your plasters of aloe on your cheeks..very fetching!...but it doesn't matter if it works, and I do hope it works for you, the gel is excellent for burns...very soothing and cooling too. |
| Growit Posted on Monday, January 28, 2008 - 02:14 pm: | |
Haha! I am sure your vision is spot on Denise. I am hoping that the burns will be gone by Saturday or I will feel such an idiot at Wisley. |
OMG! OMG! Your story was so hilarious, but I didn't dare laugh because I just KNEW it was heading somewhere bad. I expected sunburn. I had no idea about Euphorbias, and now that I do, I suspect I will never own one. You know what I picture you looking like? Me, in my wonderful poison ivy photo. I hope it isn't like that, though! Oh, you poor thing! Well, this is such a wild event that maybe you will dream about it and in your dream you will solve the dilemma of what to plant around your pond. Then it will have all been worthwhile. Right? (((LOL!))) |
| Growit Posted on Monday, January 28, 2008 - 04:37 pm: | |
DJ thankyou for your concern but compared to your poison ivy pic this is nothing!
I so hope so, either that or give my fish away and just fill it in. |
