The Pink Pleasure Garden and Other Miscellaneous Delights

After the fire which burnt down the house next door, the garden was a completely different beast.  (And beastly it was indeed for a time, with a lot of charcoal and broken glass from exploding windows, charred remains of treasured plants and so forth.)  Once things started to return to normal it was plain that the plants I had before were not all going to be suitable, because there was a lot more light and sunshine.  We worked around this and things gradually returned to a semblance of normal but somehow it just wasn't the same; my mojo wasn't working as far as the back garden went.  The back wall, which is very tall and was painted white, was beginning to look a bit scruffy where the paint was coming off and concrete showing through, and the idea came to me that it would look nice painted a calamine lotion pink.  (I know, not the usual thought which would spring to one's mind when contemplating a paint job for an outdoor wall, but there it was and I couldn't get the idea out of my mind.)  It seemed that Mr Shoestring, though remarkably understanding of my desire for all things floral and colourful, might balk at this idea, but he was only too happy to oblige and in the twinkling of an eye (or in a couple of hectic afternoons) the deed was done and the wall was pink.  It has been a resounding triumph and I am thrilled with the result.  The pale pink shade alters with the light and it very much complements (to my eye anyway) all the shades of green in the garden.

However, not happy to let things lie it came to me (in another blinding flash of inspiration) that it would look even more attractive if bedecked with all the pretty plates from op shops which I had lying around, after the big storms blew them out of trees and off trellis.  To go with the pink theme it seemed only logical to change the whole colour theme of the back garden.

 (Actually there wasn't a colour theme if I am truthful; I had started out wanting a white garden but none of the cuttings people gave me or cheap plants in markets ever seemed to be white and even the Japanese anemones, which I had hoped would have white flowers, had pink ones.)

 It seemed that a pink and purple garden with moody purple foliaged plants and lots of pink blossoms would be just the thing and so that is the new plan.  It shouldn't be too sugary, it needed quite a lot of purple and dark foliage to stop it being too chocolate box.  Things are coming along famously, though I have to admit to being rather sad about the canna lillies.  Their foliage is splendid and one of them even has purple foliage, but when the flowers bloom - bright orange, yellow and red - they will destroy the entire look of the garden.  It's a question of either ripping them all out (more easily said than done as I see they have seedlings coming up all through the lawn even), or trying to cut off the flower stems each season.  I am still pondering this question but in the meantime have planted a marvellous rose, Nahema.  This was difficult to source in high summer but there is a wonderful rose grower in the Waikato, Roach's Nursery, and the owner is the third generation of his family to run the nursery.  He was very helpful and sold me his last plant of the season.  As well as that I put in a pink Iceberg (a bit of a cliche I know, but a good doer and likely to be a survivor),

 and another one whose name I forget.  Also a pink mandevillea (I used to detest these but needs must when on a mission),

and I have heard tell of a wonderful climber called Pinkie which I am going to try to track down.  (One rose grower tried to tell me there was no such rose, but on consulting a rose tome it turns out that it does actually exist.  Hardy, disease resistant, scented, rarely without a blossom, sounds too good to be true!  I must possess one as soon as possible.)  At the markets I found some new irises and selected the ones which looked as though they would have the moody dark purple blossoms I was after, to stop the pink shades from being too sickly sweet.  And it was surprising how many purple foliaged plants were on offer, some of them already in the garden fortunately.

and even alstromerias with pink flowers.  

(The old garden staple alstromeria with orange flowers had to go, but Madame Canuck was only too happy to dig it out and cart it away to her garden where orange and yellow are welcome.  Sadly I see it is already fighting back and putting forth new shoots; let battle commence.)

Part of the joy and challenge of gardening (for me anyway) is the way things never turn out quite how you hoped/expected/planned.  A few years ago I planted a snail vine (Phaseolus) which I had high hopes for.  It languished and sulked for a long time but then must have decided that  it needed to take things into its own hands (or tendrils perhaps).  It has escaped from its allotted spot and clambered into a nearby tree, romping away in search of light no doubt and blossoming happily, more blooms this season than in all other seasons put together.  Plus which, I see it has seeded because a couple of new plants are coming up nearby.  I will try to place them in a more sympathetic location, having learned that they need more light than I understood.  The blossoms are such soft and pretty colours and the scent is good too.  Shame they are far away, high up in the tree top, so perfume not going to be appreciated. 

Apart from the frenzy in the garden we have had some wonderful finds at op shops recently.  Yesterday at the markets I was thrilled to find that the lady who has a lot of old green glass was keen to be rid of some of her smaller pieces and I swooped upon a green glass lemon squeezer, a semi-circular vase, and two little green glass jugs.

 (I am sure they would have been used for serving the mint sauce to go with the roast lamb which used to be such a ritual dish in this part of the world before we knew about cholesterol and the dangers of eating too much meat and so on and so forth.)  The Dancing Queen gave me a beautiful little green glass measuring jug and it would have been rude to make it languish alone in the kitchen without some of these for companionship.

Talking to my sister and telling her about the new Pink Pleasure Garden we thought it would be a wonderful idea to have a garden party there when it's established, complete with all the pretty old china we have amassed over the decades.  (She has a lot of very beautiful hand painted cup saucer and plate combos, so we could go absolutely bonkers on the floral theme for the table.)  Then she mentioned her set of teaspoons, recently discovered at the op shop, which I was very jealous of.  I have managed to find one or two, but not a set of six.  Mine are all different and through some judicious bargaining and swapping I have increased my selection.  For Home And Country they proudly declare.  I'm not sure if this is the motto of The Countrywomen's Institute, but it sounds as though it might be.

It goes splendidly with my small but growing collection of memorabilia from the Queen's visit and my sister so kindly gave me some additions to this collection. 

My sister also gave me the most charming was a brooch which when opened has a concertina of small pictures inside, so the patriotic wearer could keep Her Majesty close to her heart. Imagine a time when people felt so strongly about their monarch, and it was only a comparatively short time ago too. 

The other thing which came home from the op shop recently was this marvellous desk calendar, a souvenir of a trip to New York which somebody must have treasured and kept polished for decades.  It has little knobs to spin to alter the day and month, and a rectangular piece which flips over to alter the date.   

When you get to the end of the month it has very specific instructions on how to reset it for the next month. 

So interesting that people would go to all this trouble to keep track of the day and date.