The chapter of my life in this garden is drawing to a close. After five years in Christchurch, we are moving back to our hometown of Hamilton in early December and our house is going to be put on the market in six day’s time. Eek! We haven’t long been back in our house after the earthquake repairs, so the last few weeks I have been furiously tidying up the garden in preparation for selling.
Weeding has been the biggest task but there have been many other activities. The shrubs at the front of the property needed pruning, which required a ladder and a husband for assistance. Other plants have been lightly pruned, nipped or tidied. A few shrubs and perennials have been planted to fill in gaps, mostly created by the act of removing and potting up plants I want to take with me. I am trying to stem the tide of my plant stash but I may need an ark at the rate I’m going. I would usually plant a lot of vegetables from seed but this time around I bought various vegetables to fill up the space more quickly. I also fertilised most of the garden to give everything a growth boost. A big rectangle of grass on the front lawn died after necessarily having a storage container sitting on it for 11-odd weeks, so that patch and a few other spots have been resown. Path sweeping is a task that I seem doomed to repeat over and over, as the lovely lime-chip driveway stones have a habit of travelling great distances. There have been many little tidying jobs but I am just about done now. I hope the garden shines its best for the prospective buyers and I will try not to get too sad yet.
Wild Hope Homestead 