It was chilly this morning, so the first thing I did wasn’t garden-y or landscape-related at all. Well, kind of, I guess, since my ancient grey fuzzy shirt is my favourite cold-weather outerwear. Anyway, it has a new zipper now. I wonder if this one will last for 15 years?
We didn’t get frost, or if we did, it didn’t do much damage, but I’m still glad I brought flowers inside. I can look at this and other photos in the dead of winter, and remember that spring will come.
No pictures because there’s nothing to see, but I put whatever (most of them) bulbs that didn’t already go in the front oval bed or in Sarah-Flah’s garden into the bed beside the patio. I dug up my lone purple hyacinth, and it had a couple of small babies, so I separated them. They didn’t look big enough to bloom, but hopefully they’ll all live, including the big one.
We also went to RP Lumber, and I’m goddamned near $300 poorer, but I got six sheets of lattice, six 8″x8′ rough cedar boards, six 1/4″ dowels, three pounds of outdoor screws, a 1/4″ drill bit, and two 2x2s for the “enclosure” I need to make for the Spicebush Doot-doots and my Lovely Luna-to-be, so they stay in diapause, and know when spring comes, but don’t get eaten. P got some new hole saws, too, so I can make small bird-sized holes in the roost houses.
When we got home, we ate and took a nap, and then when I got up, I finished planting the last few hyacinth bulbs, checked the mail and discovered the 40 ‘Vanguard’ crocus I’d bought arrived early. I haven’t decided for sure where they’re going, plus the ground is like rock, so they didn’t get planted.
I found a cold bumblebee on the door, so I put him on my hand and took him over into the sun. He did a few leg lifts, vibrated his wings, climbed up on my sweatshirt cuff, and then flew away.
One, lonely little Sweet William, but considering they’re primarily spring flowers, and it hasn’t rained in ages, I’ll take it.
I skimmed and scooped leaves out of the pond earlier today, and also fired up my leaf blower and blew leaves off the patio over to the east end of the pond after i got up from my nap. It was getting fairly late, but I decided what the hell and got out my chipper. I remembered the green-ash this time, and also shredded a crap ton of the Mexican sunflower that I took out when I planted the hollyhocks. I spread the shredded stuff on the ground around the pond. There are probably a thousand seeds in there, but the area doesn’t get sun, and the soil is too poor for even weeds to grow, so I don’t think I’ll have volunteers.
