I spent most of the day re-organising pots so they're not scattered randomly and are lined up near the waterbutt for when I need to transport lots of water in a few weeks (the drought it already starting). SO HOT today, I kept having to go hide in the shade, even with a hat. And I went and broke up lots of the privet branches into smaller bits and piled them round the beds round the back, so I have giant mulch piles against the upcoming evil sun. It's slightly overkill, but it won't hurt the plants and it's a good way to get rid of the masses of twigs and leaves and sticks. And we took off another couple of branches, so we only have the two very tall ones that stick straight up now. So we now have some giant piles of branches, but an actual path cleared through them, and I've dumped two large piles out the front that I'll break up properly later.
I also planted another little dwarf mandarin tree next to the red guava (apparently they're good companions for citrus), and I'm going to stick another tree in the ground tomorrow - just deciding which one. I have too many trees! I want it to be the apple or a peach, as it will be in a row with the other apples and peach, for pollinating, but I also have other citrus that need planting, and it needs to be a small one.
I can put in more stuff round the back now that the privet's mostly gone, as there's more sunlight, but I'm going to be Good and Patient and wait til we've actually removed the rest of it (otherwise my baby trees will get trampled. Right now it's easy to send stuff crashing down).
I was going to do other things today, but kept getting distracted by happy garden time. It's so nice knowing I actually have time to do most of it properly now. There are so many little things like moving stuff into sensible places and getting irrigation stuff set up and Weeding Everything and mulch everywhere, and then deciding what I can repot or plant out. And resisting the urge to go buy more plants. That's a fulltime job! (I REALLY REALLY want a couple of Rabbiteye blueberries. I'm not quite sure where to put them, but argh. WANT. They're the commonest and most productive variety, I opted for a different one (the Southern Highbush variety) initially because it's better suited to my garden. But I want ALL THE BLUEBERRIES).
I love how well everything seems to be doing (almost everything. But the 5% of plants struggling are either really difficult or are getting eaten by slugs and never really had a chance anyway). And I have lots of flowers coming out all down the driveway in nice seasonally staggered displays, which helps fill the 'designer garden' niche, and lets me concentrate on the food stuff in the main garden (which ALSO has lots of pretty flowers most of the time, I just don't design placement around the flowers).
But I really need another watering can. Or a bigger one. Or both. Though being able to run a hose of the waterbarrels this year (as they're nice and raised now) will really help. (Last year it would take me at least six trips with a watering can AND bucket to water the whole garden. Stuff is more established this year, and better mulched, but I also have more of it and I didn't actually manage to water enough last year). Watering's tricky. Too much and the plants don't send down deep roots and get too dependent on you for water. Too little and they start dying.
And the silverbeet and rainbow silverbeet and celery is still growing away and due for another mass harvest soon.
I've found a US edible called 'Miner's lettuce' which looks like it might be an awesome groundcover/salad thing that will keep reseeding and tastes nice and is too tough for the slugs. And my alpine strawberries are starting to snowball in numbers and ripeness (and tastiness!), and my normal strawberries are starting to show signs of fruit. The peach trees all have tiny peaches on and it looks like I have a nice little crop of blueberries coming. Also guavas! The rest of the plants are still budding out, so I'll have to wait and see how many apples and citrus and grapes and things I get. I'm also hoping the haskap (honeyberry), almond, cherry and passionfruit do something this year. The plum tree is covered in beautiful white blossoms and smells lovely, but isn't self-fertile so I probably won't get anything. But I'll see.
I spent a couple of evenings last week nailing chicken wire under the patio roof and running an archway with sheltercloth up to it. I've replaced the dead pepino (I must get another of those) with the red vanilla passionfruit, and hopefully it will grow up under the arch and spread across under the roof (it needs shelter and warmth and shade, so I'm hoping I created the right microclimate).
