A Gardening Kind of Weekend

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 27^th 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,

re-arranged

Transplanted Lilac

Teeny tiny hosta!

Apples - pre cull... now there's 1

Bearded Iris

White-pink Peones

Deep purply-red Peones

transplanted fern

Really have no idea what this is, but it
sure is pretty!!!

Also no idea what this is - looks a little like pom-poms...

I Am Re-Naming Spring.

I spent about an hour and a half outside today – most of it on my hands and knees digging up dandelions. 

Funny thing about that – dandelions always remind me of my Grandpa English.  They seemed, in summer, at least, to be the bane of his existence.  He and Grandma had a house and lot in the south end of Nanaimo & in the summer time Grandpa would try all sorts of things to get rid of those damn yellow flowers. When my brother and I would go stay with them, we would pick bouquets of Grandpa’s flowers for Grandma.

I didn’t think much about dandelions until I bought my house in Ontario.  The yards (front and back) had never had much attention, and so dandelions had run rampant.  I bought a hand tool – sort of looked like a very small crow bar – and over the course of the three summers I had the house, I spent a lot of time on my hands and knees digging up dandelions at the root. Hot, dusty, unpleasant work in the middle of summer in Ontario, but still rewarding when, finally, my last summer there rewarded me with a decently green lawn that WASN’T green because of dandelions.

I took possession of my house here in Cumberland BC in late September of 2011, and so, though there were some out, I didn’t think about them much.  To be fair, I was very busy with moving in, writing exams and then just plain trying to settle into a new job and a new home all in one small space of time.

Winter came and the yard fell asleep – dandelions included.

Its spring now and they are awake. 

I’ve seen only one in actual flower, but have spent a few hours outside now, on my hands and knees, thinking about my Grandpa English and digging them up at the roots.  Today’s gleanings removed two full buckets of them from the yard – there are lots more out there that will need to be pulled up...

I also actually pulled out my rotary mower and ran it over the back lawn to help even things out, and then finally took the big fan-shaped garden rake to the yard & put everything into the compost bin.

I’ll need to get my hands on some good quality grass seed (I’m in research-mode there) with which to re-seed and over-seed both the back and front lawns, but for now, the big push is going to be pulling out all of the dandelions as they start to really make their presences known.

One of the big springtime challenges I am having right now is actually dog-related.  I have a very uneven back yard and so, as material is available, I have been spreading out soil to even out the ground.  There are holes and dips and hills.  No big deal, really, but the dog-related challenge is that when it rains (as it tends to do a lot in spring) things become muddy and then Miss Jasmine is outside in it and tracks muddy doggy feet into my house. Muddy Foot prints run a specific line through my kitchen – and though I do wipe them up as much as possible, the challenge is that the floor needs lots of washing.  I’m thinking about maybe getting a Swiffer Wet-Jet – just so I can spot-mop when she comes in… and then do a full wash one a week or so…

A dog door into the utility room is fast becoming a necessity!

That will, of course, require the replacement of THAT door (and frame) and the installation of the aforementioned dog door – but doing that would also allow her to self regulate inside and outside all day when I’m at work.

Hm.

Maybe the next big house-changing project (after the front door has been replaced, of course) will need to be the mud-room door?

Spring is being officially renamed - it is now Dandelions and Mud.

With love across the waters,