Thursday, May 2, 2013

Spring duties

 This is less than half the front yard mowed, 2 days ago.  It took me 4 hours, because A) the grass was way too high (needed a baler, not a mower!)  and B) I have to do everything in spurts, with lots of downtime throughout the project.   Oh, lordy...it was a job.  My beloved finished it last night after work and then today, since he didn't go to work today.  And , I suspect, since I could barely walk last night. sigh...


  The weather has been glorious, albeit hot. Until today. Today it cooled off considerably and began to rain. Luckily though, not until about 8:30 tonight. So we had a good part of the day to get some much needed garden work done.

 
 This, gentle readers, is Big PoPo the cat, laying in the middle of a garden bed. In the sun.  In the background is one of 5 wheelbarrows full of chickweed that I pulled out of garden beds. OMG.  I told the Irishman that we should just start a chickweed farm !  It pulls up pretty easily, but it was still  back breaking work. I had my favorite old metal green lawn chair handy, and stopped and sat as needed. 


 This is what we did today too...hauled in 2 truckloads of composted leaf material and spread it on the beds. Probably still need one more truckload, but it will have to wait now, as it's supposed to rain all weekend. Then we will shovel manure on the beds, dig that in and then they will be ready to plant.  YAY! These are my chives, regular chives and garlic chives. They come back every year.  This is also where the anise hyssop is, but there's no sign of it yet.  Hope it's okay and planning to show itself soon.  I've been harvesting chives for salads and stuff for weeks. They are one of the first things to come back up.


 This is from one of the beds that still has some kale growing. And weeds,. LOL


 My giant hostas are finally breaking ground.  There are 4 clumps of these bad boys in front of my back deck, in the blazing sun.  Each one is about the size of a medium doghouse. That flower bed needs cleaning up too...full of yummy dandelions and chickweed and god only knows what else. At one end there is a big clump of lilies and at the other end is where the bee balm grows.  It runs along the length of the deck.


 And here's one of about 7 pots of hen and chicks on the back porch railing.  Looking good--lots of "chicks".  

 I meant to get out front and cut some lilacs to bring in the house and I never got around to it. Originally they said we were going to have severe thunderstorms today, but that didn't happen. I figured the storm would tear up the flowers, so I might as well cut most of them.  I'll have to see how they look tomorrow.  We worked right up til it was past time to eat tonight, and once I was back in the house, that was it. I forgot everything else, I was so grateful just to sit down. lol  Alright--I HAVE to go to bed.  I am sore and tired and ready for some sleep.

  There's been lots going on, but I'll save it for another post...maybe tomorrow.  Maybe.



Namaste.




6 comments:

Cloudia said...

Country living :-)

DJan said...

Everything looks great, Annie. That chickweed looks backbreaking! You are such a good gardener, I always enjoy seeing what you've got coming up. :-)

Mama Pea said...

Your big hostas grow in the "blazing sun?" I thought they needed shade . . .

Akannie said...

Aloha, dear Cloudia !!

DJan...it was. lol Wouldn't have been so bad, but there was so much of it! It took over everything.


Mama Pea..I know. Hostas are shade lovers, but these were herre when we bought the place, and I was shocked by them. lol They grow like crazy...

Mariodacatsmom said...

Wow backbreaking work is right girl. Hope you laid down with a ice pack. That helps. Our things are about as far along as yours seem to be. This next week should be nice after a rainy weekend.

the wild magnolia said...

a lot of hard work. wonderful garden. you do so much!

take care of you.