In the olden days – I love that expression, ‘olden days’ – they used to plant Lilacs around the old Long Drop. The outside toilet or the dunny – my favourite name. The lilacs were an olden day air freshener. Our gardens are heaving with the scents of lilac at this time off year but no outside dunny. .
Personally I think all toilets should be outside. I used to live in a lovely old house in New Zealand that had the toilet in its own room on the verandah outside, next to the Wash House (laundry). Even though it was a chilly dash in the winters and it was a flush toilet, it was so much better than having the smelly thing in the house. Almost all houses in New Zealand have the toilet in a separate room from the bathroom and the older houses often had a second toilet on the back porch that was accessed by an outside door for the smelly business ( or the farmer in boots) . Here the toilet is parked right next to the shower in the center of the house. Horrors.
But the lilacs are right outside the window and the scent floats by. I love Lilacs and the garden has many varieties. They surround the house and at this time of year when the windows are open the whole house is infused with the beady fragrance of Lilac. They don’t all flower at once either so we will have Lilac perfumed air for a little while yet. 
We have been transplanting the young lilacs that spring up around the base of many of the bushes. I told Ellie (my head gardener) that my goal is to hide the house completely in trees and big shrubs. And I want hundreds of lilacs. I guess you class Lilacs as shrubs though they can get as big as trees.
The Tween flock – still happy in their garden house.
Tima enjoying the hay field.
Saturday today. My volunteers have the weekend off so I march to my own drum on Saturdays and Sundays. The wind is blowing out of the North East – no-ones favourite wind at this time of year. It is chilly and runs straight through the piglet barn doors – they have to stand open so Molly and the piglets can go outside to the toilet in their own lilac scented garden. The piglets have a warm bed though. I have swapped out the middle sized piglet house for the big black one (the upside down water trough with the doorway cut in it) so they are able to get right down the back where it is totally sheltered and warm.
Their creep is enlarged now too so they have more space for their food and water and their playful growing bodies.
Though cooler it is good planting weather – no heat stress for the plants or the planters. But I look forward to some warm days – I do.
I hope you have a lovely day.
celi
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59 responses to “Lilacs for scent”
Lilacs don’t grow here in the South. I miss the lilacs we had in our garden in Indiana. And the toilet thing – I lived in Australia where the toilet was separate from the bathroom. It took some getting used to, but its a good idea.
I think so – gives one a wee bit more privacy
Tima is beautiful, Ceci! Here in California, a real treat is to drive by an orchard when the orange blossoms are blooming. So romantic! Used to have a drive-in theater un the middle of the orchards – what a heady perfume for movie watching!
yes – that is a heady scent indeed. c
Tima is fabulous
I have never heard the word dunny – is it your own?
The outside loo in Phoenix means going out in 40C plus weather with scorpions and such. Count me out.
What you need is a dry toilet, then it can be moved around with the seasons 🙂 You can make good compost too!
I’m longing for our lilac to come out, its a very slow start this year, its snowing as I look out of the window typing this! I hope the forecast is right ans we have 20c in a weeks time, I need to warm my bones.
I wonder if your Lilac is related to our indigenous Plecanthrus (sp?) – a shade loving plant , looks similar but sadly frost tender so no hope here until October at least. Love Tima in the hay feld 🙂 Laura
Sadly, no lilacs yet, or asparagus either (but it won’t be long now, as the forsythia are just beginning to show colour: )
After last summer’s droughty weather, we ought to have an amazing show of blossom on them this year and I can barely wait!: ))
Just tiny green buds on my lilac’s but I do so love them.. I bought hedging lilac’s years ago, they were to grow rapid and spread widely but so far they are slow little things.. I think your post has made me decide to go out and work the area around them and give them a good compost feed and see if we can get them moving long a touch faster.
The very first bushes I planted on the farm the first springe we were here was four different kind of lilac’s and they are big now and I love their scent in the spring, and their flowers for drying and for jellies.. I will have to check my aspararagus plot again today 🙂
Your words are fitting your pictures more these days.
I’ll have to make note, should I ever the chance to visit, not to come during the lilac bloom. The scent has always given me an awful headache. I do hope your bees have found the bushes!
I love Lilacs. I just planted my first lilac bush last summer, so I think it will be a while before I get to enjoy the scent blowing through my bedroom window. I plan to plant some more next year, but this year I had to focus on completing my orchard of 17 fruit trees. Never a dull day on the farm, right?
Lovely images .. sadly our toilet is in the bathroom 😄