The Head Gardener’s Hod Carrier

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Brick Path
Jackie working on Dragon Bed

Jackie continues weeding, clipping, planting, and replenishing soil. This involves a certain amount of popping out to a garden centre. Today, for example, she departed for some lime and returned with, in addition, a garden tray, a parasol, and the obligatory few plants. Here she was working away on the Dragon Bed near the house end of the Brick Path a couple of days ago.

Wisteria arbour

Here is a current view of the Wisteria Arbour where, accompanying the eponymous plant, can be seen a red rose and Carnaby and Star of India clematises; with bronze fennel, cerinthes and Sweet Williams in the foreground bed.

Garden view across Kitchen Bed
Allium

From the corner of the patio the view across the Kitchen Bed contains the white clematis Marie Boisselot reflected by libertia; alliums, pansies, and diascias bringing notes of purple and pink; and russet triangle points made up of the recently pruned maple, the distant copper beech, and the now fully blooming

Chilean Lantern Tree

Chilean Lantern tree.

Rose Peach Abundance 1

Rose Peach Abundance soars over the Oval Bed,

Rose Altissimo

as does Altissimo beside the potting shed.

Rose Mum in a Million

Mum in a million,

Rose Crown Princess Margarete

Crown Princess Margareta,

Rose Schoolgirl

and Schoolgirl are all flourishing in the Rose Garden

Rose Festive Jewel

where Festive Jewel

Rose Garden 1

leads the eye through For Your Eyes Only to Gloriana, with Love Knot to the left;

Hoverfly on rose Summer Wine

and a small hoverfly investigates Summer Wine peeping from its rack on the entrance arch.

Heucheras

The Head Gardener is wondering whether the splendid, flouncing, heucheras are now putting the roses in the shade.

Cuttings for compost 2
Cuttings for compost 1

My primary function has been to explore all paths and corners of the garden seeking out heaps of weeds and clippings and either chopping them up to fill the orange bags, or dumping them on the fast developing compost piles.

These contributions can crop up anywhere, especially, it seems, when I think I have finished.

Wheelbarrow loaded with weeds

This was just the first wheelbarrow load today.

Weeds for compost 1

Pushing it happily along the Brick Path, I discovered the next two loads. It is fun being the Head Gardener’s Hod Carrier.

Fortunately, Jackie had produced enough of her marvellous lamb jalfrezi meal yesterday for it to be reprised this evening. As usual, this offered some enhancement. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden, leaving the Kingfisher to me.

42 comments

  1. Hod carriers are worth their weight in gold and deserve as much TLC as the plants. Sometimes favours still have to be paid in return, but I do think having to help heft the lawnmower from the bottom of the garden to the top today was taking things a bit far.

    1. Could not agree more, easy to cut things down and pull up weeds when some one else picks up after you. Have to say that I do try to clear up after myself but oh how lovely to have a Derrick!

      1. I found this definition on line-
        A derrick is a lifting device composed at minimum of one guyed mast, as in a gin pole, which may be articulated over a load by adjusting its guys. Most derricks have at least two components, either a guyed mast or self-supporting tower, and a boom hinged at its base to provide articulation, as in a stiff leg derrick.’
        I have the ‘stiff leg’ variety! Love him. X

  2. I always found that dumping the detritus of the head garden’s secateurs onto a small tarpaulin and then dragging the damned stuff was a lot more simple that using a wheel barrow.
    And how many birds do you have in your garden?

    1. Mmm… John. Thanks. Absolutely no idea of the the numbers, John. Lots. Sitting out in the evening last night I thought I really must get someone to show me how to record their myriad of sounds.

  3. Thanks to your live home garden Chronicles, I can correlate what was hitherto a bunch of abstract ideas with flowers and plants.

  4. Adorable how happily you push a wheelbarrow full of weeds — I’ll strive for your eternal sunshiny attitude, Derrick! May you and Jackie always bloom so lovely. ? ?

  5. Great pictures as usual Derrick, your Chilean Lantern tree has me intrigued, so research needs to be done now to improve my appreciation of this beauty.

  6. Jackie’s definition of a derrick is hilarious! The derrick could do with a jack(ie) to do some of the lifting! Oh, and the garden is beautiful!

  7. I enjoyed the garden and spied a few new items including an owl in the first photograph. I may have missed the new parasol, garden tray but am sure the new plants will enjoy their new places.
    I liked the purple singular plant. I’m thinking it may be an allium (!?) I’ll check back to find out what it really is, thank you.
    The beautiful gray bricks pathway in a circle is really cool, Derrick. 🙂

  8. That is a beautiful walkway in your garden. The clay soil here in my area tends to swallow stonework unless the bed has been tamped and graveled sufficiently before laying the stones.

  9. I thought with that title we were going to get a lot of photo’s of one Derrick J Knight.
    Must admit the flowers are much more attractive, with all due respects of course. 😈

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