I got a flat, but planted only six in two hanging pots for now. Still no sign of MLBs, but they’ll come eventually, I hope!
The ones I haven’t planted yet.
The tag, for when I forget.
Not Bistro-related, but he looks pretty.
I haven’t seen any yet, but I looked at the map, and they’re actually past us, so I disinfected and washed their feeders, and put them up. It’s raining and going to get chilly again, but it’s not like they can turn back, so they need food!
I accomplished a fair amount over the weekend, but didn’t photograph most of it because it was just cleaning out dead stuff from flowerbeds and weeding. Jesus H Christ, what a lot of dandelions we’ve got. At least I can tell the soil is acidic!
Yes, I took another picture of the moss. It’s so pretty in spring because the weather is cooler and damp; it’ll manage through summer, but spring is when it really shines. I also pulled a crapton of algae out of the pond yesterday, and threw in half a grocery bag of frogbit that I’d taken out of the piranhas’ tank. Little as they are, they had nowhere else to swim, and although it’s early and the frogbit still might die from cold, it’s not like I don’t have more; I’m having trouble finding a place to feed Cliffie! I didn’t take a picture of the frogbit because it’s literally thrown in, and the roots are still floating, and the plants on their sides. They’ll sort it out after they’ve been free-floating for a while; plants know that the sunny side is up, and roots go down.
I saw the first non-overwintering as an adult flutter-guy of the year! He didn’t let me close, but he looked so fresh I think it had to be his birthday. I love Red Admirals!
Bluebells are a little past their peak, but still beautiful.
Canada bloodroot bloom. I had a few others, but forgot to photograph them before they were gone.
My impulse buy azalea ended up in Sarah-Flah’s Giant No-Mow Garden. I thought I’d found a good spot, but it turned out that I’d already planted butterfly weed there. Whew—glad I didn’t accidentally dig that up, and I hope I didn’t damage it!
On Sunday, I went through my seeds and discovered that I did have enough low-growing stuff to plant the little bed around the baby dogwood. I kept the packets so I’d remember what I put there, but don’t have them ATM. I know I had alyssium ‘Royal Carpet’, and baby’s breath, and dwarf bachelor’s button, and heliopsis ‘Summer Sun’. Didn’t have room for borage (dammit).
I’ve been spending my time after work cleaning out dead stuff and weeds from the flowerbeds, so once again, I’m behind. Just a few pictures, though.
The ginger is looking rather good now; I like the freaky little flowers.
I found only one jewelweed seedling, but that’s not a surprise; it didn’t do very well there last year. We’ll see.
New growth from the pachysandra, which is very welcome. It made it through the winter, but I really wish the native variety would spread with the same enthusiasm as the invasive Japanese stuff!
I wasn’t going to buy any, but the azaleas were so pretty that I just had to have one…for now. Depending upon where it ends up, I may need more.
Tag…because I’ll forget what it is.
Still much left to do, but I’m slowly getting the flowerbeds tidied up.
I went out at lunch and got lavender to try in the front flowerbed. So far, I’ve decided upon (probably) heliopsis, lavender, dwarf bachelors button, and portulaca…or something. Hopefully, the lavender will do better here than it did in the Bee Happy bed; I think it was too wet there in winter.
I’ve been busy (yes, sitting on my arse counts as busy if I want it to), and haven’t been keeping up with what little I have been doing.
I got some cheap dirt to fill in the new flowerbed.
Then, I got some garden soil last week, and mixed it into the cheap dirt in the new flowerbed. Still haven’t got anything planted in it, and really haven’t decided for certain what will be there, but at least there’s dirt. Boo seems to think it’s a fucking litterbox, so once I do get plants/seeds in, there will have to be chicken wire on top of it. Ugly, but I guess I can camouflage it with mulch, and better than having it torn up by a cat.
I took this a few days ago; the ginger is coming along nicely. It actually looks even better now, but it’s been grey and rainy, so I haven’t taken more pictures.
The cold snap didn’t faze the Virginia bluebells much; they are looking lovely!
The rain kind of flattened the pretty things, plus they’re down by the creek where they aren’t really visible anyway, so I cut them and brought them inside. I had to mix in some yellow daffy-down-dillies as well; the others tend to flop a bit. Still, they look lovely on the table, and the sun came out just enough that I could get the warm colours.
If it’s 2017 and your site looks like this on mobile, you suck. I’m close to needing reading glasses, but for this, even someone with perfect vision would need a fucking microscope!
I actually left at about 10:15, so next week’s cheque will be disappointing, but it was worth it, I think. I stopped at Buchheit on the way home to get paver base and sand, then came home, changed clothes, and went to work. I cut the sod (AKA crabgrass and witch-grass) with a shovel and my edger, then moved the top course and flipped the bottom course. Dumped in paver base, then tamped it down with a sledgehammer and a board scrap.
Added a layer of sand, then tamped that down and started placing the blocks.
Added the second course, then screwed up the block I had to cut for the end. I’ll get another one tomorrow and try again.
My assistant did nothing but roll around on the ground. Very crappy assistant.
All in all, I got more done than I’d expected, so it’s worth using some vacation time, though I’d hardly call what I did this afternoon “vacationing”!
In non-backbreaking news, I got a couple of flowers from the pachysandra. A little damage from the extreme cold, but still pretty.
Poor little HK did double duty as a concrete hauler yesterday. These things weigh about 10-11 pounds each, and there are 46 of them. I bought 44, but we lost count while loading. I don’t know that I could have chosen a colder day; the north wind was bitter! This will be the flowerbed out front, around the little dogwood tree. It’s supposed to be warmer this weekend, do that’s my plan. It’s fucking freezing now, though!
It’s been cool-ish, and going to turn cold for a little while again, but sprang be sprangin’ no matter what!
From last weekend…Virginia Bluebells are making progress. I weeded them; the goddamned Indian strawberry (turban, not bourbon) was really getting out of hand. Fuck that stuff…it needs to die.
My hyacinths didn’t all come back, but some did, and they’re pretty. Blue ones always seem to be first.
More daffy-down-dillies (less brave than the first, but still lovely)!
