Mar. 31st, 2013 02:24 pm
Digging in the dirt
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muckefuckFie upon the meteorologists! I'm seriously beginning to wonder if there's any reason to favour their predictions with regard to precipitation over those of an old man with bunions. Beyond the fact of it being the first temperate day in weeks, the reason I made such a push to get into the garden yesterday was that I was told to expect a night of pouring rain. It didn't pour. It didn't sprinkle. We didn't see so much as one solitary raindrop.
I'm not saying that getting out there was pointless; Ceres knows I needed the shove. But now I'm finding it necessary to go out again and hook up the hose in order to make sure everything's good and watered. I stuffed the composter full of dry tinder and then left the top off to wet it; now I've got the hose running over it. By far the bulk of the new stuff is the rest of the autumn-blooming clematis I couldn't fit in there last fall--probably about a cubic metre of foliage which I crushed down to a couple of litres. Unfortunately, in the process of doing that, I distributed roughly two billion fluffy little clematis seeds across the length and breadth of the garden plots. Literally, there's a layer of them at least an inch deep over our section. I foresee a long summer of weeding ahead.
And a long summer of pruning. In ripping out the clematis, I found green shoots already almost a metre or more. Keeping it in its place is going to be a challenge. Same goes for the woodruff at its base which is fast spreading into the sunnier areas of the garden. I already have plans for the round trellis which is poised to stand on the border of our doubled area and the spare plot. (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
monshu suggested morning glory but I may have found something better.) Unless someone claims it, Scooter and I are setting it aside as swing space; the dogwood is there now and the firebush is likely to join it as he digs it out in order to take over the plot next to his.
Aside from the clematis, there are green (and very spicy!) shoots on the chives and purplish new leaves on the sorrel. Despite the mild winter, however, neither the rosemary or verbena seem to have pulled through. Our ex-neighbours' English thyme appears to have made it and will be joined by the lemon thyme I bought yesterday whenever it's warm enough to put it into the ground. (Probably not for another month yet.) I also picked up seeds and will try my luck at sprouting marjoram, lemon balm, and lemon basil (dill wasn't recommended for starting indoors) in the front window for later transplantation.
To my annoyance, Gethsemane had no mache, but I found something else which can be started outdoors before the last frost and will hopefully be a pleasant surprise for the Old Man. It's hard to be cross with them, though, when they were so outrageously nice to me during my visit. I had a lovely chat about begonias, stephanotis, and Easter cactus with one scraggly dude in the greenhouse and the woman at the counter not only promised to order me some mache seeds but was so protective of the plants that she wouldn't let me take the thyme out unwrapped until I'd sworn up and down I'd found it outside on a cart and not in the tiny temporary greenhouse.
I'm not saying that getting out there was pointless; Ceres knows I needed the shove. But now I'm finding it necessary to go out again and hook up the hose in order to make sure everything's good and watered. I stuffed the composter full of dry tinder and then left the top off to wet it; now I've got the hose running over it. By far the bulk of the new stuff is the rest of the autumn-blooming clematis I couldn't fit in there last fall--probably about a cubic metre of foliage which I crushed down to a couple of litres. Unfortunately, in the process of doing that, I distributed roughly two billion fluffy little clematis seeds across the length and breadth of the garden plots. Literally, there's a layer of them at least an inch deep over our section. I foresee a long summer of weeding ahead.
And a long summer of pruning. In ripping out the clematis, I found green shoots already almost a metre or more. Keeping it in its place is going to be a challenge. Same goes for the woodruff at its base which is fast spreading into the sunnier areas of the garden. I already have plans for the round trellis which is poised to stand on the border of our doubled area and the spare plot. (
monshu suggested morning glory but I may have found something better.) Unless someone claims it, Scooter and I are setting it aside as swing space; the dogwood is there now and the firebush is likely to join it as he digs it out in order to take over the plot next to his.Aside from the clematis, there are green (and very spicy!) shoots on the chives and purplish new leaves on the sorrel. Despite the mild winter, however, neither the rosemary or verbena seem to have pulled through. Our ex-neighbours' English thyme appears to have made it and will be joined by the lemon thyme I bought yesterday whenever it's warm enough to put it into the ground. (Probably not for another month yet.) I also picked up seeds and will try my luck at sprouting marjoram, lemon balm, and lemon basil (dill wasn't recommended for starting indoors) in the front window for later transplantation.
To my annoyance, Gethsemane had no mache, but I found something else which can be started outdoors before the last frost and will hopefully be a pleasant surprise for the Old Man. It's hard to be cross with them, though, when they were so outrageously nice to me during my visit. I had a lovely chat about begonias, stephanotis, and Easter cactus with one scraggly dude in the greenhouse and the woman at the counter not only promised to order me some mache seeds but was so protective of the plants that she wouldn't let me take the thyme out unwrapped until I'd sworn up and down I'd found it outside on a cart and not in the tiny temporary greenhouse.