The (Moor)Field Guide: 8
End of Summer, Late February 2024. Pumping up Patch Productivity 1 Season In. Pushing for Another Round of Roses. Purchasing for Spring Colour & Inspiration from other People's Gardens.
Dear Reader’s and Fellow Gardener’s
I cannot believe I am writing to you from the second last week in February and almost the end of summer! How can this be?!
When I write this we have just come in from watering, feeding and harvesting by the light of the moon (and back verandah sconce of mum’s cottage), trying to set the veg patch up to handle a 35+ degree day on the way, and a couple of days of no water. The ground is good and drenched and while we have not yet put in the veg patch irrigation, this is as good as we can offer it. I hand water and race about with slopping watering cans filled with diluted fish emulsion, listening to the sprinkler system in the Long Border as it hits the foliage and so too the orchard and rose garden, slowly being soaked by the drip, drip, drip of irrigation.
I think how nice it will be when the patch is set up too, with such convenience but it was a beautiful thing to be out there in the dark. It feels a secret world that we rarely know, the sounds so different to the day, the birds still surprisingly vocal, I imagine they’re all asking, what is she doing out here at this time? The constant chirping of crickets, thuds and cracks from the pitch black nether, down toward the creek, making me think I might turn around and be met with a mob of roos in the orchard behind me, the evidence of their nighttime visits I often find on my morning wallks but if they were there tonight, I could not see them.
I am off to attend the Land Escapism event in Sydney this weekend with a number of horticultural heroes of mine, Tom Stuart Smith, his partner, Dr Sue Stuart Smith, Steven Wells and Georgina Reid. It is an event that will pivot around something I talk about a lot here in this space and over on Insta; the healing power of gardens; creating them, being in them, sharing them.
If you have had a week, even if you haven’t, I hope this finds you ready to take some timeout, put your feet up and brings you a moment to escape into our gardening world. We have much to share, you will see as you read on. I hope it conveys something of the joy it brings us, the creating of this garden, and perhaps even inspire you in your own or to spend time in those of others.
Happy weekend, happy gardening and happy reading.
Pip xo
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