Weedin'
Having just unintentially bought six perennials, I now find myself in the position of needing to plant them. That was my plan for Tuesday after work. As it turns out, I did all kinds of things, only none of them was planting those six perennials.
This is par for the course for me. I often make plans, and often actually follow them. However, I also commonly set out to complete one task, but then get distracted by another and start on that, maybe even finish it, but then notice this other thing that should be taken care of, and so on and so on.
So it was Tuesday. I got home, put on my dirty garden clothes from Saturday, put on my stylin' gardening boots, took the six plants outside... and then wondered whether the soil was too wet for planting. One of the first things Dad taught me about gardening was to not plant when the soil is too wet. We had rain on Sunday and Monday. I decided perhaps I should wait on the planting till the soil was not so soggy.
On the other hand, wet soil is great for weeding! Those little stinkers that are nearly impossible to pry from the ground when it's hard and dry are easy-peasy to dig up when the soil is wet--why, you can do most of the weeding with The Claw! So I started weeding in the back yard by the dry creek bed.
Only the dry creek bed by the back gate was full of wet leaves that had blown there all winter. So annoying! So I got the rake and gingerly raked the old dead leaves out of the bed and through the gate to the front by the vegetable garden.
I can't leave them here, though; they'll blow all over our nicely cleaned up garden! Raked the leaves to the front of the yard, to join the pile of yard trash from Saturday.
Back to the back: weeding on hands and knees, making little piles and carrying them to the patio to make a tidy pile. Better tear out the old dead perennials, too, to make way for new spring growth. Weeded up to the end of the patio, then ran over to the other side of the deck to weed there.
That forsythia! Who knew it could be an invasive? Not me. Turns out if you don't trim it back, those long bending branches will root and make lots of new baby forsythias. Note to self: in future regard forsythia as hostile. Started digging out all those volunteers and cutting back the original plant. More hands and knees work, several attacks by the overgrown Knock-Out rose (which the forsythia had become entangled with). Finally, i was back to one (severely trimmed back) forsythia.
As much as I was cursing the forsythia volunteers... free plants! Where can I poke some of these guys in the ground for instant coverage? Plunked three root-y stems in the ground in the backyard.
Hey, check out the climbing hydrangea; it's also rooted a bunch of branches. More free plants! I trimmed several of these and transplanted them by the porch.
I still had a handful of forsythia sprouts, so I moved to the front yard and planted three more. Note to self: don't forget to trim them back in the fall.
By this time, the sun is going down, so I took the tools back to the backyard, where the dogs were desperate to go inside NOW. So they, I, and the six perennials all went back inside. I spent two hours in the yard, doing everything except the one thing I set out to do. Nevertheless, I felt extremely satisfied with myself.
Tonight my goal is to plant some peas. I wonder what I'll actually end up doing?
This is par for the course for me. I often make plans, and often actually follow them. However, I also commonly set out to complete one task, but then get distracted by another and start on that, maybe even finish it, but then notice this other thing that should be taken care of, and so on and so on.
So it was Tuesday. I got home, put on my dirty garden clothes from Saturday, put on my stylin' gardening boots, took the six plants outside... and then wondered whether the soil was too wet for planting. One of the first things Dad taught me about gardening was to not plant when the soil is too wet. We had rain on Sunday and Monday. I decided perhaps I should wait on the planting till the soil was not so soggy.
On the other hand, wet soil is great for weeding! Those little stinkers that are nearly impossible to pry from the ground when it's hard and dry are easy-peasy to dig up when the soil is wet--why, you can do most of the weeding with The Claw! So I started weeding in the back yard by the dry creek bed.
Only the dry creek bed by the back gate was full of wet leaves that had blown there all winter. So annoying! So I got the rake and gingerly raked the old dead leaves out of the bed and through the gate to the front by the vegetable garden.
I can't leave them here, though; they'll blow all over our nicely cleaned up garden! Raked the leaves to the front of the yard, to join the pile of yard trash from Saturday.
Back to the back: weeding on hands and knees, making little piles and carrying them to the patio to make a tidy pile. Better tear out the old dead perennials, too, to make way for new spring growth. Weeded up to the end of the patio, then ran over to the other side of the deck to weed there.
That forsythia! Who knew it could be an invasive? Not me. Turns out if you don't trim it back, those long bending branches will root and make lots of new baby forsythias. Note to self: in future regard forsythia as hostile. Started digging out all those volunteers and cutting back the original plant. More hands and knees work, several attacks by the overgrown Knock-Out rose (which the forsythia had become entangled with). Finally, i was back to one (severely trimmed back) forsythia.
As much as I was cursing the forsythia volunteers... free plants! Where can I poke some of these guys in the ground for instant coverage? Plunked three root-y stems in the ground in the backyard.
Hey, check out the climbing hydrangea; it's also rooted a bunch of branches. More free plants! I trimmed several of these and transplanted them by the porch.
I still had a handful of forsythia sprouts, so I moved to the front yard and planted three more. Note to self: don't forget to trim them back in the fall.
By this time, the sun is going down, so I took the tools back to the backyard, where the dogs were desperate to go inside NOW. So they, I, and the six perennials all went back inside. I spent two hours in the yard, doing everything except the one thing I set out to do. Nevertheless, I felt extremely satisfied with myself.
Tonight my goal is to plant some peas. I wonder what I'll actually end up doing?
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