(As an aside: I'm not sure I can explain my affinity for Erica's blog. At first glance I have very little, if anything, in common with her. She's a young mother who home-schools her children and grows a lot of her own food, so her blog focuses mainly on edibles, cooking, and urban animal husbandry. She just came back from taking a year off from blogging and gardening because her head wasn't in it -- which was true of me for last year too. She lives with mood disorder/depression, which I do too. I've been into her blog since she started it.)
Anyway, here's a list of my accomplishments so far this year:
** Did a ton of weeding and cutting back (which hadn't been done anywhere in over a year)
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| With the weeds pulled and everything trimmed, you can actually make out the shapes of plants again |
** Got the stream running again
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| View from an upstairs window of the now-running stream |
** Planted water-loving plants into the gravel of the stream bed
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| Water Hyacinth |
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| Two black gamecock Iris |
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| At the base of the waterfall, a combo of chocolate creeping jenny, bloody dock, and purple pickerelweed (Can you spot Huey and Dewey?) |
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| Huey and Dewey (Louie is all by his lonesome is on the other side of the waterfall) |
** Planted new plants along the back of the stream
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| Cyclamen, Corydalis lutea, Hellebores and Thalictrum ichangense have been added to this area, but it still looks rather bare |
** Planted new plants in the Northeast shade bed
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| New gold-leafed Hostas and other perennials have added bright spots to this dark corner |
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| That empty spot in the bed on the right might be the future home of a fern table |
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** Started seedlings in the greenhouse (now being hardened off outside)
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| Too many Castor bean seedlings |
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| Unhappy Tithonia and Cerinthe seedlings that want some heat and to get in the ground |
** Pulled out plants from the front bed by the street that were inappropriate (got too tall and flopped) and planted shorter, more appropriate plants instead
** Moved the Brugmansias out of the garage onto the driveway
** Put in a new flagstone and gravel path to serve as a short-cut through the front bed along the street (photos to come in a future post)
** Took out the lilac bushes (technically I hired a strapping young lad to do this, but it counts)
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| Empty hole where lilacs used to be |
Still to do:
** At least three more beds still need weeding and cutting back
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| I ignored this bramble last year when it appeared, now it has popped up again this year as well as 10 feet away and even more vigorous than before |
** The Great Migration of Plants
** Plant onion starts in the raised vegetable beds
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| Six pots of onion starts -- why didn't I bring a couple of pots to the swap? Now *I* have to plant them all! |
** Freshen the soil and fertilize the Brugs
** Plant more new plants in the front bed by the street
** Plant new shrubs and perennials where the lilacs were removed
** Renovate the gravel garden
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| The gravel garden has gotten wildly overgrown and weed-infested |
** Install two more gravel paths
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| One gravel path will go through here and continue in back of the stream |
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| A second path will curve around this tree and to the left |
** Plant, plant, plant
** Stop hoarding plants
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| I have too many trays of plant starts set aside for use "some day" |
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| While weeding I found a bunch of self-sown red-leafed Euphorbia, but I couldn't just toss them into the yard waste bin like shotweed |
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| When I pruned one of my rosemary shrubs I found three branches that had rooted, so I had to pot them up |
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| Two of those trays contain Pacific Coast Iris divisions, which have been hanging around for a while now (I bring them to swaps in groups of threes and sixes, I'd be embarrassed to bring them all at once) |
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| These daylily clumps aren't even in pots! What's wrong with me? |
So, how's progress in your garden? Are you as anal-retentive as I am?