The weather two weekends ago wasn’t terrible – it also wasn’t hot and sunny… which means that it was a perfect weekend for being outside doing outside chores – the mundane ones AND the much more interesting ones.
This is my first spring and summer in my home and this year has been the learning year where the yard is concerned. When I moved in, on September 27th of last year, the Damson plum tree was in the full throes of harvest, the Granny Smith apple tree was in high growth and the yard was an overgrown jungle. There was a pressed down path where I could creep quietly from the concrete patio to the back fence, but the Sumac had taken over, the weeds and grass were out of control and I had no idea what I was looking forward to.
Instead of digging everything out and starting with mud (which may have crossed my mind briefly before I considered Jasmine, mud and the inside of my house) I spoke with my parents and they wisely advised me to do very little in the fall and winter and start with an eye to “what would I like to keep” come the spring.
Small side-bar here, I LOVE being in BC in the early spring – getting snowdrops (the flowers, not the cold flakes) in February beats the hell out of February in Ontario where all gotten is wet, cold, cold and wet!
In the front garden bed, Snowdrops and both purple and yellow crocuses were followed by pink and purple hyacinths and yellow and red tulips that reached about 2’ tall! Soon after that, bluebells followed - bachelor buttons hard on their heels. The bachelor buttons are nearly done and now there are flowers on the lilac bush out front, buttercups and white with purple flowers on the rhododendrons. When the rhodos are finished flowering I will be getting in there with my secateurs to complete a brutal trimming – there are two of them and they are tall, stringy and weedy looking. You may recall I have removed a couple of trees and thought I had completely cut back and killed the wisteria that had grown up over the roof line and into the attic – but no… I looked out the other morning and the wisteria vines are starting to creep around the stump. Hm. Now I need to make the decision as to what I would like to do about this – cut it back or train it up the stair railing and see if the damn thing blooms post brutal pruning.
The back yard was more the focus of that weekend’s out of doors activities…I got started on the usual pre-work activity of picking up any and all dog bombs happened first and then I mowed the lawn. Next up, I pulled the Giant Hogweed seedlings I had spotted & then pulled up the square patio tiles and dug out a whole PILE of sumac roots. Sumac is a self-starter and sends out runners (much like strawberries) and the roots really need to be dug out if you want to try and prevent more from coming up. I was all in after that and came in & had a shower and did some laundry.
Monday was a little more interesting… I cut down a stump, dug out the ferns (and re-planted one of them in a different place) re-planted a Hosta that had been placed into a container, moved some things around, pruned dead wood off of a shrub, planted the potted lilac that was just not growing happily (pot was WAY too small and the poor thing was root bound.)
I took a bunch of pictures and was all ready to upload them, but learned that my blog pictures file is almost and if I want to add more, I have to start paying for photo storage space... so now the decisions need to be made - should I spend the money on buying photo storage space, should I go back & start removing photos, or should I just start a new blog and start fresh...? Hm. Decisions, decisions... what do you think I should do...?
Here's what I was able to upload...
With love across the waters,
This is my first spring and summer in my home and this year has been the learning year where the yard is concerned. When I moved in, on September 27th of last year, the Damson plum tree was in the full throes of harvest, the Granny Smith apple tree was in high growth and the yard was an overgrown jungle. There was a pressed down path where I could creep quietly from the concrete patio to the back fence, but the Sumac had taken over, the weeds and grass were out of control and I had no idea what I was looking forward to.
Instead of digging everything out and starting with mud (which may have crossed my mind briefly before I considered Jasmine, mud and the inside of my house) I spoke with my parents and they wisely advised me to do very little in the fall and winter and start with an eye to “what would I like to keep” come the spring.
Small side-bar here, I LOVE being in BC in the early spring – getting snowdrops (the flowers, not the cold flakes) in February beats the hell out of February in Ontario where all gotten is wet, cold, cold and wet!
In the front garden bed, Snowdrops and both purple and yellow crocuses were followed by pink and purple hyacinths and yellow and red tulips that reached about 2’ tall! Soon after that, bluebells followed - bachelor buttons hard on their heels. The bachelor buttons are nearly done and now there are flowers on the lilac bush out front, buttercups and white with purple flowers on the rhododendrons. When the rhodos are finished flowering I will be getting in there with my secateurs to complete a brutal trimming – there are two of them and they are tall, stringy and weedy looking. You may recall I have removed a couple of trees and thought I had completely cut back and killed the wisteria that had grown up over the roof line and into the attic – but no… I looked out the other morning and the wisteria vines are starting to creep around the stump. Hm. Now I need to make the decision as to what I would like to do about this – cut it back or train it up the stair railing and see if the damn thing blooms post brutal pruning.
The back yard was more the focus of that weekend’s out of doors activities…I got started on the usual pre-work activity of picking up any and all dog bombs happened first and then I mowed the lawn. Next up, I pulled the Giant Hogweed seedlings I had spotted & then pulled up the square patio tiles and dug out a whole PILE of sumac roots. Sumac is a self-starter and sends out runners (much like strawberries) and the roots really need to be dug out if you want to try and prevent more from coming up. I was all in after that and came in & had a shower and did some laundry.
Monday was a little more interesting… I cut down a stump, dug out the ferns (and re-planted one of them in a different place) re-planted a Hosta that had been placed into a container, moved some things around, pruned dead wood off of a shrub, planted the potted lilac that was just not growing happily (pot was WAY too small and the poor thing was root bound.)
I took a bunch of pictures and was all ready to upload them, but learned that my blog pictures file is almost and if I want to add more, I have to start paying for photo storage space... so now the decisions need to be made - should I spend the money on buying photo storage space, should I go back & start removing photos, or should I just start a new blog and start fresh...? Hm. Decisions, decisions... what do you think I should do...?
Here's what I was able to upload...
With love across the waters,
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| re-arranged |
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| Transplanted Lilac |
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| Teeny tiny hosta! |
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| Apples - pre cull... now there's 1 |
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| Bearded Iris |
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| White-pink Peones |
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| Deep purply-red Peones |
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| transplanted fern |
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| Really have no idea what this is, but it sure is pretty!!! |
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| Also no idea what this is - looks a little like pom-poms... |
