Thursday 13 January 2011

Oh Rats!

First things first......hooray, I got out and did some gardening yesterday. This is the estate of forty cottages near Mudeford. The few in the picture are at one end, and as the small front gardens take care of themselves at this time of year, all of my work was done throughout the large back gardens that wrap around the outside. Mostly just a bit of the remaining dead heading left over from last year, a little leaf clearing and a bit of pruning at this stage, but it was nice to get back into it.


This particular Mahonia I planted when designing the front gardens. It has to be kept hard pruned every year as it block the owners window otherwise, but the flowers are just the best at this time of year.


This very small border needed colour for the spring and winter to tie in with surrounding borders that have colour at other times. Just mixed evergreen azaleas wrapping around Cornus 'Midwinter Fire'.
Cornus are among my favourite shrubs as they can provide immense colour in the winter if planted en-mass. Mix the colours up by using Cornus stolonifera Flaviramea, Cornus sibirica and Cornus Midwinter Fire, and it gives a real show, but you need a large border to get the right effect.


Healthwise, oh well, the scan showed a clot, and so now I can look forward to five days of injections in the stomach and six months on Warfarin. Yep!.....rat poison is coursing through my veins as well as the drug that I can't remember being stuck in my gut.....whoopy do! The pain has pretty much gone so something must be working, and the outlook is apparently quite hopeful. They are still unsure as to why I, apparently being sooo healthy otherwise, never smoked and always kept active should contract such a problem...I suppose I'm just lucky!  The main problem will be not cutting myself, as the warfarin would be a problem and they tell me I could bleed out quite quickly. Given that, as Amanda reminds me, I come home virtually EVERY day bleeding from somewhere, and the occasional hedgetrimmer etc accident happens, I am going to have to spend the next six months suited up, so no short sleeves or shorts.....hmmmm. Not feeling full of the joys of spring!

5 comments:

  1. Glad to hear you're back in the gardens. Be careful out there!!!!

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  2. Glad to see you're back at work! The cornus is just beautiful, and something I'm definitely going to "borrow" for my own garden.

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  3. Be careful, you need to change your header picture to you out walking in the woods , from that post that you and Amanda went out hunting chestnuts. Then we won't worry every time we look up and see that chainsaw/hedge killer thing up top. Good luck, be careful and get some steel mesh gloves or wear a coat of armor for the next 6 months.

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  4. Gary,
    Glad to see that you back on your feet and in the garden(s). Hoping the meds are not having any adverse side effects and that no accidents befall you while on them. Your advice on the borders is great. I will pop in and out this post from now till spring. I could really to with the seasonal colors you have talked about and shown here. Take care. – G

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  5. By 'eck, sounds like you've had a rum start to the year! Hope the medication has started to work now though.

    Can't rememebr where I wandered into here from, but I've enjoyed having a read through your posts as well as nicking your ideas on winter colour - I love cornus, so I'm partway there! Thanks.

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