Weed Free!

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 We now have a completely weed free garden!! We were watching the final episode of David Attenborough’s “Green Planet” on Monday night and he was explaining how he does not think weeds should be referred to as such. They are plants like any other, and should be thought of as pioneering plants. Which is great, because in one fell swoop we no longer have any weeds. There is quite a bit of pioneering going on though!


With another week of dry, and mainly warm sunny weather, we have again spent much of our time in the garden. Nicky has continued planting and has finished the week with digging out pioneers, and planting the south west corner of the back garden:



I have completed Phase Two of holesome digging for the retaining wall:



I haven’t dug out right to the western end by the fence as I am not quite sure how the structure of the wall is going to work out around the curve of the path at that end. I also see it being the most complicated section to construct, so I’m going to start at the other end. I have been a little surprised at the size of the spoil heap that I have produced:



There have been a range of diversions that have dragged us out of the garden. I have had quite a bit of MacOnSite work. During the odd coffee break (and with assistance from Lady Peter) have completed another jigsaw puzzle. Nicky (Lady Peter) had a good meeting with Louise about all the parish pastoral work that she does on Monday. On Tuesday afternoon Nicky went to her Home Group.


We had a bit of excitement on Wednesday when Mark (next door but one) had the container, which he has been leasing, collected. He has been using it for tool and equipment storage while fence building. I commented to the truck driver that I was concerned as to where Mark was now going to put his pie warmer.


On Thursday Nicky was up early making cheese and chilli bread muffins. Fiona from down the road came round for morning tea, and Felicity from church came for lunch. Friday lunchtime saw Nicky going off to the Ophthalmology Clinic at hospital, and later in the afternoon Frances (Mrs Egg) called in for a free coffee and tour of the garden. We had fish and chips for tea which was lovely.


The weather has started to cool down, and towards the end of the week it has no longer been warm enough for post-dinner al fresco cups of tea. We have had a couple of nights where the temperature has got to single figures, and on Saturday morning the Met Service app on my phone said it felt like 2º when I was emptying the tea pot for our first cuppa of the day. We have enjoyed a couple of mornings of seeing the mist appear above the river and then disperse.


This weekend is the first of two Open Studio Weekends for local Whanganui artists. Today I walked down to an exhibition of three artists, just off Somme Parade, to meet Nicky on her way back from church. We had a picnic lunch overlooking the river where there is a bench and a grassy area just as the space between between the road and the river widens, which is probably a 10-15 minute walk from our home. We then walked to another couple of single artist studios, and a fourth studio, which we discovered was closed due to Covid. We saw some interesting, fun and lovely items. After some time recovering from our excursion by rehydrating, reading and gardening, Nicky made us very tasty omelettes for tea, and an evening of Mah Jong and telly stretches out before us. Today has been warm and humid, but we have the prospect of welcome rain tomorrow.


Take care, Rick and Nicky 

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