Council gardens

Another mixed day today, sunshine and showers. I'd received an email a few days ago from a member of staff at the council, asking if I'd be agreeable to suggesting a shrub to be planted in the bed in the middle of the mini-roundabout in Argyll Square. He told me that the 'palm trees' - aka Cordyline australis - were in a bad way and he'd obtained funding to take them out and replace them with something more attractive. In spite of my decision to treat the council's sites with suspicion I arranged to meet him there at 11am. 

There are several clumps of this tree in the area. It's sometimes called the 'cabbage tree',  though it's neither a cabbage or a tree, or a palm for that matter. Surprisingly it's in the Asparagus family! Apart from a few dead trunks - as in my Blip - the plants were in good shape and I told him that it would be a pity to remove them. He agreed and I promised to come up with a few other shrubs to complement them.

I'd mentioned that the viewing  platform at McCaig's Tower flooded after rain and we parted after agreeing to meet there at 1.30. Had a quick visit to Tesco - my extra today is of a couple of gulls shouting from a lamp standard! - then walked home in a shower of rain, so I got a soaking!

After lunch I met him at the Tower and looking at the area he was persuaded that the job needed seeing to, so I took the opportunity also of explaining why I thought that the garden  was an opportunity wasted. He's heard this before, of course, but he seemed to listen so I hope that something comes of it. What doesn't help, of course, is that the council gardeners are not gardeners!

Back home to spend the rest of the sunny afternoon indoors!

Quote of the day: 'No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.' - Thomas Jefferson.