Apr. 12th, 2014 10:17 pm
Mid-April irritations and compensations
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muckefuckUgh, two hours at the computer to finish up my taxes--and that's not the half of it. So stressful, making my annual visits to websites of varying usability and functionality to collect tax forms like treasures in a really, really, really superdull adventure quest. The winner this year is Computerserve, which didn't even require me to log in. And the booby prize goes to Vanguard, which wouldn't let me log in despite dozens of attempts. The menu bar would say I was logged in, but it would never show me my accounts. Logging in again would either redirect me to a login screen or simply hang interminably. Next year promises to be both harder and easier: Harder because I'll have more entries, but easier because I'll actually be getting something back without having to minimax my IRA contributions.
Today was crazy warm. I expected 70s but it actually broke 80. (The official weather says 27°C, so 81°F if we're rounding up.) Unfortunately I ended up doing the gardening at peak temperature, which left me feeling more shagged out than a couple hours of raking and spading should. Earlier in the week someone shared an article on making a Hügelbeet, so I decided to give it a go, as the winter left more than enough woody debris around. It also gave me a place to stick all the dead clematis which I couldn't stuff into the composter.
I saw so little green when hacking away the clematis, in fact, that I worried it might not have made it through the winter, but there are buds on the lowest reaches. I pruned back all of the clemates brutally, since it seems to have worked well last year. I also worried about the woodruff, since it was buried against the deepest bank of the snow as recently as last week. (The very last bit only melted away on Thursday.) But once I pulled up the dead leaves and stems, I saw plenty of fresh buds. If anything, it appears to have crept even further into the plot, which will furnish me with some useful divots for the Hügelbeet.
The catnip was the first to reappear. I've already been treating the cat with little leaves for a week. The mint seems not to have made it, though, and we lost both the rosemary and the sage, but not the thyme. Surprisingly, some parsley seems to be coming back. (It is a biennial after all.) But right now most of the tiny bit of verdure is from the lemon balm, the chives, and especially the sorrel. I considered throwing some in the salad tonight, but I'd dumped a bucket of compost over it and didn't want to fuss with washing it thoroughly when it's expected to storm tomorrow anyway.
Today was crazy warm. I expected 70s but it actually broke 80. (The official weather says 27°C, so 81°F if we're rounding up.) Unfortunately I ended up doing the gardening at peak temperature, which left me feeling more shagged out than a couple hours of raking and spading should. Earlier in the week someone shared an article on making a Hügelbeet, so I decided to give it a go, as the winter left more than enough woody debris around. It also gave me a place to stick all the dead clematis which I couldn't stuff into the composter.
I saw so little green when hacking away the clematis, in fact, that I worried it might not have made it through the winter, but there are buds on the lowest reaches. I pruned back all of the clemates brutally, since it seems to have worked well last year. I also worried about the woodruff, since it was buried against the deepest bank of the snow as recently as last week. (The very last bit only melted away on Thursday.) But once I pulled up the dead leaves and stems, I saw plenty of fresh buds. If anything, it appears to have crept even further into the plot, which will furnish me with some useful divots for the Hügelbeet.
The catnip was the first to reappear. I've already been treating the cat with little leaves for a week. The mint seems not to have made it, though, and we lost both the rosemary and the sage, but not the thyme. Surprisingly, some parsley seems to be coming back. (It is a biennial after all.) But right now most of the tiny bit of verdure is from the lemon balm, the chives, and especially the sorrel. I considered throwing some in the salad tonight, but I'd dumped a bucket of compost over it and didn't want to fuss with washing it thoroughly when it's expected to storm tomorrow anyway.
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