Yay happy greenie stuff!
Spent most of the weekend doing garden-y stuff - yay! I'd been resisting for a while, in part due to post-appendicitis restrictions (10-lb lifting limit), but those were done in mid-April, and Dr Haag (grant him many blessed years) said I could go back to full landscaping and hauling bags of dirt in May. Then I was resisting because it's such a BIG job - it's not a small yard, and I've been losing the battle against the weeds.
And it's depressing looking at the grass. It got seriously destroyed last year, and is now a swath of ground lily and wild carrot, punctuated with clover and thistle, and the rare patch of actual grass. Siiiiiigh. I think I have to finally admit, having owned the house for six growing seasons, my DIY powers (compounded by well-meaning but misguided "help") are not enough to resurrect this lawn. It needs professional - and probably chemical - assistance.
On the other hand, there are good spots. The back border is LUSH with black-eyed susans and daylillies. In fact, I may need to thin out some of the susans. Two of the three rose bushes in the corner survived, and are putting out dense leaves. The hollies and the clematis are doing well. Weeded out an entire cartload of yuck, and stuff looks...well...finished! Like it's supposed to! I can look at the beds and smile, instead of groan internally and add to the infinite to-do list. In front, stuff is looking even better.
The glorious Wild Spice rose is covered with heady-fragranced white blooms, which perfume the air even as far as the sidewalk. The lilacs are finally blooming, and my gigundo purple irises are putting out satiny ruffled buds, and about four of them have burst into coffee-mug size flowers. The Atterbury irises are doing well. I wish I liked them better :-S I love their history - my sister saved them from an area where they'd naturalized, survived several decades unattended, and were about to be wiped out (bulldozer/development something). So she brought some home. And I found a place for them. They're yellow on top, and burgandy/brown below, which I don't find a particularly attractive shade, but I gotta respect a plant that's been through that much.
I have some kind of sedum borrowed from Grandma's house (upstate NY - a VERY hardy little plant) that seems to love the pea-gravel areas. I've been propogating it as a ground cover with family history. It's doing surprisingly well under the trees on the east side of the house. Yeah....it may be the year for those trees to go (sob....I hate hate hate killing trees). I need to figure out exactly which sedum it is. But it's a hardy little invasive. As long as it sticks to the designated areas, we get along fine.
New project #1, I'm sick of battling the encroaching weeds around the mailbox, so I'm gonna smash 'em with a ton of bricks. Ok...228 lbs of bricks. Ok - a brick wall encircling the mailbox post, fill it with dirt, and have a spot for random annuals, and a few more escapee Atterbury irises.
New project #2, I'm starting to seriously think about the deck. I'm sick of battling the encroaching weeds on the pebble-zone surrounding the patio, and the patio is starting to die the slow death of crumbling scale. Time to just cover it over. And of course, that means new edges and corners for possibly more plants. I may get another russian sage in here after all!
New project #3, my parents went to a Going Green workshop of some sort, and gave me all sorts of ideas on rainwater cachements for self-watering beds. Wheeee! And I'm considering doing a worm-composting system. I haven't been too happy with my current compost heap. Then again, it doesn't much help when my well-meaning neighbor drops an entire shrub in there. 1950's neighbor "Can I borrow a cup of sugar?" 2000's neighbor "Can I dump some stuff in your compost heap?" At least the shrub-carcass dried out enough over the winter that it could go in the firepit instead. S'mores anyone?
Happy siiiiiiigh. I've missed gardening. Nurturing something that grows, creating a whole picture, whole living space. It's really part of my soul, and a reflection of myself. I neglected it too much last year. I'm glad to be back.