Garden goings..

Monday saw the sale of all of my Langstroth beekeeping supplies.  If I ever go down that road again it will be top bar only.  I was happy to see it go and the guy that bought it all was delighted to take it!  The rains came Monday evening and brought in much cooler temperatures and wind for today.  That didn’t stop Cooper from wanting to be outside on the deck though!

I have to admit to being so incredibly glad that he likes being outside!  It makes life so much easier to be able to go out and know he’s content to lay on the deck or on his other bed nearby. 

I’ve got so many plans and projects for the gardens, I need a few more versions of myself out there to do the work.  Today I took care of a project that wasn’t any fun at all, moving rocks.

Now, my original plan for these rocks was edging that looks like this, but with a catch, I want to set it in mortar so that they don’t sink into the ground.  Rocks here have a tendency to disappear in one season so a nice cut edge, a little mortar and river rock would make a great edge for separating the gardens from the grass.  These borders are only going to be for the gardens that we are creating in the wooded areas that are in the deer fenced part of the yard.

One of the places I had to gather rocks from (because someone took some of my really nice river rocks to use!) was where the overflow pipe is.  Those rocks were under several inches of mud because the area continues to wash, it’s just a natural slope for all the water that runs through the yard to go into this area.

Well I came up with the brilliant idea to turn this into a dry stream bed.  It will be a nice addition to the area and it will allow the water to wash through without getting muddy and gross. It could look something like this..

Which I think would look SO much better than it does now..

Now that all the small rocks are up from around the path edges and the pond area, I’ve got lots of little things I can do.  The bigger rocks will need to be relocated and I suspect some can be used for the dry stream bed.

I also have to collect as many of the large limbs that have fallen as I can find to use to edge the paths.  I’m going for this look..

Isn’t that a path you’d want to walk down!  Hey if I’m dreaming my dreams are going to be big ones.  I really wonder what the heck the people do with all their leaves!

Weekend Happenings

Spring is on full speed here, I can’t believe how quickly everything is coming up and greening up.  Last week we got our replacement trees..Finally!!

This time they brought us Norway spruce, the guy said he didn’t know what had killed them, but maybe they didn’t get enough sun.  I could see a tree not growing and languishing away, but not out right death like that.  I really want to get all the small beech trees and the one damaged large one taking down.  That would help with more light getting into the back yard.  We need all the help we can get to dry things out back there too.  With the grass always being wet, it’s super easy for Cooper to tear it up!

We actually got to do some outdoor chores on Sunday.  Randy mowed the grass and cleaned up the leaves from various places.  I started the process of moving hosta to the back gardens.  When they are small and haven’t opened yet they are pretty easy to move.

I have a few odd clumps that have shown up in other beds, the most daunting task for me though is the hosta coming up along the front. In addition to the hosta this bed has several azaleas in it that need to be moved.  I’ve actually thought about hiring someone to come dig the holes and move them for me.  It hurts my back just thinking about digging them up!

A very nice gift of the deer fence has been seeing things blooming that never have before.

This yellow bush has been back here for years and the deer ate it constantly, this year it was safe and showed it’s appreciation for that.  Randy said we will have to rescue the other two from around front and plant them near this one.

These are just a few of the hosta coming up in the bed near the deck, they have leaves and everything!

Funny how getting to see something as simple as violets blooming can make you smile, the deer typically ate the flowers off in the spring leaving me with nothing but green leaves.

With nice weather in the forecast I suspect that I’ll be spending quite a bit of time outside working…

First blush of Spring…

What is a girl to do when she walks outside, the sun is warm on her skin, the air is fresh and the chill has been removed with that breath of Spring?  She spends the day outside of course!

The fruits of my labor, was a pond area removed of all leaves.  (Too bad I can’t say the same for the pond!)

I cleaned the leaves out of the bog, it was great to see green sprouts in there!  I don’t know how many plants made it, but at least I know some did!  Of course I can’t wait till they really get growing and help with the algae.

The stream got a through cleaning too, leaves cleaned out and Oxi-lift poured over the rocks to kill of the string algae.  The filters got a good cleaning too, messy job but makes a big difference.

The fish were happy with the tidying and were also enjoying the warming water I’m sure!  As soon as all the leaves have been cleaned up and shredded we will be able to take the net off and get the debris out of the pond and the new plants in. 
Spring has sprung at least a little!

Spring springing...

Maryland is notorious for it's crazy spring weather, one day it can be 70 and sunny, the next snow can be falling on the daffodils. For me it's part of what I love about this state, that we get seasons and sometimes, mini seasons within the seasons!

Last week and weekend was warm and lovely, I got my first sun pinking of the season while raking leaves out of the flowers beds. Of course now today the weather has turned cold and I can't help but feel a wee bit of guilt over the exposed plants that are emerging from the warm ground that haven't been blanketed by mulch yet! In any event, my garden bug has bitten hard and I found myself buying dahlia and peony tubers yesterday as well as picking up a couple new pairs of gardening gloves. My credit card took another hit as I pre-ordered some new hellebore's and bleeding hearts. I can hardly wait for things to arrive so that I can start planting, today however I will just have to be content to look at the lovely flower images online and in my gardening magazines.

Planning...

The fish are as happy as I am that spring is finally here! The wood frogs came back which made me really happy as I wasn't sure what they were going to do when they arrived and their previous mating pool had been replaced. They however found the water just fine and as you can see right in the center of the picture here is a mass of eggs. Now if the fish don't eat them and we don't have another freeze, the pond will be loaded with tadpoles soon.

I sat by the pond for a while today planning the landscaping of it. I've decided on some nice Carex Bowles Golden for around the front edge where Zoe is. The back side will have a small seating area, ferns and some sort of fence to break the wood line from the pond. I've also come up with a brain storm to build some raised beds at the skimmer end to plant perennials in. It will help to insulate as well as hide the skimmer.

Off to dream some more gardening plans up!