you can lead a whore to culture
I'm trying to do a bunch of minor yardwork around here, both to celebrate (and, uh, tame back slightly) the growth of spring, and also in trying to prep for Carnival and the pie party (parties are an excellent motivator for cleaning). This is delayed somewhat by my inexperience, my total ignorance about almost anything gardening-related, and my almost complete lack of yard tools.
However, I figure that it's hard to go TOO wrong with clearing out dead leaves and plant matter, and trimming things back some. The yard has clearly been kept by a gardener in the past, so until I figure out exactly what is growing around here, I suspect this year I'll mostly just be observing and trying to keep up. The other week, I chatted up my neighbor and got out that apparently the trees in my front are apple trees. And I saw some strawberry plants starting to leaf out in a section near my shed. However, apart from that, I don't really know what else is here. I got a few pics today, but it was overcast while I was out, so they didn't turn out that well. I'll get more as things continue to bud. If you want to contribute to my "identify the plant" game (see previous link), feel free to chime in.
Today I spent time trimming things, clearing out brush and attempting to pack up the huge mountains of it into bags for recycling/trash. I don't have a lawnmower yet, but fortunately the lawn isn't growing that quickly, yet. Well, except for these little green tufts all over the front lawn. They're nice and green and healthy, and I figured they were just bits of over-eager grass, albeit several dozen of them.
Then I looked at one clump a little closer. Hey, that doesn't look like grass. I broke off a piece and sniffed, then ate it. I checked around to the other ones. Sure enough, I have a front lawn chock full of chives. And a few along the side and back, too. Good thing I didn't bother getting any of those seeds.
I got a visit from a semi-random pickup gardener who claimed to have helped with yard work here in the past and offered help, so I gladly paid him to do some of the harder stuff. 8+ (smallish) trash bags and 4 (large) bundles of branches/weeds later, I'm pretty exhausted. And I still have parties to go to tonight! Time to hit the shower.
However, I figure that it's hard to go TOO wrong with clearing out dead leaves and plant matter, and trimming things back some. The yard has clearly been kept by a gardener in the past, so until I figure out exactly what is growing around here, I suspect this year I'll mostly just be observing and trying to keep up. The other week, I chatted up my neighbor and got out that apparently the trees in my front are apple trees. And I saw some strawberry plants starting to leaf out in a section near my shed. However, apart from that, I don't really know what else is here. I got a few pics today, but it was overcast while I was out, so they didn't turn out that well. I'll get more as things continue to bud. If you want to contribute to my "identify the plant" game (see previous link), feel free to chime in.
Today I spent time trimming things, clearing out brush and attempting to pack up the huge mountains of it into bags for recycling/trash. I don't have a lawnmower yet, but fortunately the lawn isn't growing that quickly, yet. Well, except for these little green tufts all over the front lawn. They're nice and green and healthy, and I figured they were just bits of over-eager grass, albeit several dozen of them.
Then I looked at one clump a little closer. Hey, that doesn't look like grass. I broke off a piece and sniffed, then ate it. I checked around to the other ones. Sure enough, I have a front lawn chock full of chives. And a few along the side and back, too. Good thing I didn't bother getting any of those seeds.
I got a visit from a semi-random pickup gardener who claimed to have helped with yard work here in the past and offered help, so I gladly paid him to do some of the harder stuff. 8+ (smallish) trash bags and 4 (large) bundles of branches/weeds later, I'm pretty exhausted. And I still have parties to go to tonight! Time to hit the shower.