rainbows in curved air (or curves in rainbowed air)

The Confused Librarian’s Garden

Why use the adjective above, is this from Confucious? are we talking Chinese-stylee garden?

Let’s go back in time & look at this subject chronologically. Librarians love order.

Check the numbers; 2 young boys in tow. Let’s grass everything so they have space to play football & cricket & it will save us going to the park (although it is not far away!)

As 1 of these offspring is getting married soon, perhaps we should recall that day playing cricket, when I hit a huge 6 over the hedge & smacked a window in the next street. Naturally, I blamed the kids & ran indoors.

As they grew older (& more sensible?), I reclaimed more of the garden for plants, bushes, trees & flowers.

As I grew older & became a driver, I required a driveway. Time for the hard-landscaping. The working parts of the garden grew smaller & the enjoyable bits got bigger.

Paving & decking removed much of the grass-cutting chore. I had a smaller area to work on, so I could focus my efforts in being creative.

As the concrete appeared, I tried to balance this with the use of plants in pots to soften its effects. A Mediterranean colour scheme was utilised. This required Homebase to blend their ‘off the shelf’ blues to get the hue just right. Blue flowers were also selected, but perhaps I should have been bolder & went for those bright, bold, oranges & reds?

As stated above, librarians need order, how would I now arrange these plants? By size, by species, by colour, alphabetically, by bloom date?

Should I have a mix of shrubs, trees & flowers? I tried to get all round interest in the garden. I needed something for every season.

Time passed. I was toying with the idea now of an oriental garden. I knew my DIY skills are very limited, so it would have to be simple. Thus no water features except my tears & plenty of rain.

I had brought some Japanese style stools from the happy highlanders that we moved from indoors to outdoors. They required a swift black painted makeover (has to be done at this moment again due to a harsh winter).

I wanted a Japanese archway leading into the back garden. I thought of curved ends like the letter ‘pi’, but I kept it simple 3 pieces of timber painted black.

I could have climbers going up & along this & hanging wind chimes. Ornamental grasses, blue bark, solar lights, gravel, rocks…etc…bird tables, bird baths, bird feeders…….I am getting there.

Hanging baskets & a hammock for that mid- air suspension feeling. Everything getting blasted by the wind.

Yesterday I was out in the storm, fine-tuning the metal & bamboo wind chimes. Getting the right balance in sound. I am sure Monty Don would appreciate the latter.

I play this silly game with the local foxes. I plant loads of bulbs underground & then they come & eat them up! How do they locate them inches underground. Are these like truffles for foxes?