Gardening 201

There's a wierd thing that happens to gardeners. You put time and effort into planning, planting and caring, and after you've been doing that for a while you decide to change things.

Maybe something didn't grow as you'd hoped, or with time it becomes apparent that something is in the wrong place and needs shifting.

Or, you covet a different plant and eventually you find yourself shifting that one, to plant this one, and making sure you leave enough room for that other one.

A combination of these happened and I found myself experiencing gardening 201 this afternoon.

The blue pot right of centre has been repurposed for nepeta blue (a triphid-like cat nip none of the cats who frequent my garden care for).

Time will tell how successful the shift from ground to pot is. Digging it out required a solid workout on the end of the crowbar. Repeatedly.

I split the plant - possibly using an unconventional method involving an old saw. It's a hardy perennial and it needs to be after the fright I've given it.

Nepeta blue used to live at the back left where phylica pubescens now resides. I think it's also known as flannel plant. It's a feathery South African I fell in love with.

I asked about it at Bunnings and the saleswoman scornfully told me that it doesn't grow in Canterbury and that they don't stock it.

Really? Well it grows at my garden designer's place a couple of kilometres away and now it's growing at mine.

Front left is Callistermon Mathew Flinders, a compact Australian shrub which promises masses of bright red bottle brush flowers.

I have a soft spot for these. My Australian Nana grew the large variety and she'd approve of this. I'm sure that my Australian grandfather on the other side if my family is nodding his approval too.

I prepared where Matthew the bottle brush is planted a couple of months ago. Hopefully it now drains well or Matthew will become unhappy.

The ground cover with the pink flowers is my happy Australian grevillea Mt Tambothia. The low green mounds are a NZ native whose name escapes me.

The eagle eyed might spot the leucodendron behind the pot. Another compact Australian I've blipped before.

I'm very happy with this and I think I passed gardening 201 :-)

Today's gratitude: For a Goldilocks day, the mix was just right.