Gardening update
For those of you who were wondering, the shade part of the garden is almost complete.
I finally found lilies of the valley, and ordered from a nursery because they had them. Well, they haven't arrived. Perhaps I am supposed to plant them next year.
So I have snowdrops and crocus and tulips and a couple of part-shade lilies, narcissus, grape hyacinths, a couple of hyacinths, an iris or two and even some blue anemones (think blue daisies) dug into the ground.
Our soil really is wretched. Claylike and hard, it benefits from being whacked with a shovel. I've been mixing in potting soil; the compost has really gone nowhere since we moved here, so I've left it out. Maybe I'll get a compost tumbler.
I was busy Saturday, so I did the digging Sunday. I still have 100 species crocus to put in the ground, one leftover lily I didn't plant because it got too dark to see (I did get the first 6 or so in), and all the rest of the tulips and things that can't handle shade. That's another 175 bulbs, plus the rest of the hyacinths and narcissi (and the additional narcissi and the lilies of the valley that aren't here yet).
I guess I will indeed be sending my sister some bulbs. I had thought some daffodils/narcissi and maybe the odd tulip. I have a feeling some of the crocus will be left over, too. Wonder how she and my mother feel about blue daisies.
I'd thought I would transplant the cannas, but they're still blooming (we had one frost, but it was very mild). I will be cutting back the blasted ornamental grass and tasteless creeping mint.
I work late enough that nothing's going to happen until Friday or Saturday, I think.
I finally found lilies of the valley, and ordered from a nursery because they had them. Well, they haven't arrived. Perhaps I am supposed to plant them next year.
So I have snowdrops and crocus and tulips and a couple of part-shade lilies, narcissus, grape hyacinths, a couple of hyacinths, an iris or two and even some blue anemones (think blue daisies) dug into the ground.
Our soil really is wretched. Claylike and hard, it benefits from being whacked with a shovel. I've been mixing in potting soil; the compost has really gone nowhere since we moved here, so I've left it out. Maybe I'll get a compost tumbler.
I was busy Saturday, so I did the digging Sunday. I still have 100 species crocus to put in the ground, one leftover lily I didn't plant because it got too dark to see (I did get the first 6 or so in), and all the rest of the tulips and things that can't handle shade. That's another 175 bulbs, plus the rest of the hyacinths and narcissi (and the additional narcissi and the lilies of the valley that aren't here yet).
I guess I will indeed be sending my sister some bulbs. I had thought some daffodils/narcissi and maybe the odd tulip. I have a feeling some of the crocus will be left over, too. Wonder how she and my mother feel about blue daisies.
I'd thought I would transplant the cannas, but they're still blooming (we had one frost, but it was very mild). I will be cutting back the blasted ornamental grass and tasteless creeping mint.
I work late enough that nothing's going to happen until Friday or Saturday, I think.