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| horse & boy |
I started my seeds late, and they didn't get regular water, and then it got really hot in some days when i wasn't home to bring them in; then, too, we hadn't been able to get our last year's garden, with its great cedar post fence, tilled. This past weekend, though, my mum was down and she got a whole mess of things planted: some seedlings that actually sprouted, and lots of old seeds that i'm not sure will germinate.
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| "meditation garden?" asked hubs |
and i tried to plant berries: strawberries in cinder blocks--and hopefully next year, in the old chimney caps, too; blueberries in a compostable container; rows of beets and beans and horehound and borage planted around them.
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| these sticks are not supposed to grow. |
(those sticks aren't "trees", though, but markers for seeds.)
technically we have room for huge gardens. in my weary bleared dazèd state, however, i tried to keep it small. i'm not sure how objectively small this is, but i feel a lot less overwhelmed this year.
(currently my son is in hysterics because he had a minor accident. there is much histrionics: "anh anh anh i can't move! i think he may have inherited a dramatic streak from somewhere. ahem.)
this bed had been planted with ivy and irises fifty years ago when the house was renovated. we felt really awful about tearing it up--all those bulbs! but friends, let me tell you, ivy is not charming and romantic. it is insanely aggressive and destructive, and its roots were creeping under the wooden siding, pulling up and rotting the wood, and crumbling the brick mortar of the chimney. it had to go. i replanted as many if the bulbs as i could, and worked and worked the soil, which chiefly meant spreading wet newspaper and compost over it. it looked pretty sad last year, but the soil looks way better than i expected. here is my feeble attempt at a "potager":
the herbs i planted last year are doing well, somehow, despite the insane winter. and i got a new lemongrass, which didn't survive the move.
along with some flowers that came back from last year--hooray! and one pore ol' random kale plant that survived the groundhog slaughter.
who knows if stuff will bloom, especially as the herb seeds are a couple years old now and the seedlings got pounded by torrential rain, but it looks exciting. i need to fix the fence to try to keep out the groundhogs, too . . .
seriously, though, with all the stress and tiredness, it's easy to forget that spring is lovely not because of anything i do, but the work of those gone before who knew the beauty of the nature of spring.
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| i do love a peony! |
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| wild roses |
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| such delicate little flowers |
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| and such elegant blowsy ones |
4 comments:
Lovely! But you'd better cover your berries with netting else the bunnies and birds will feast! Franklin house had strawberries when we first moved in, and we only got a few before the birds ravaged them. It also had asparagus, sour cherries, crab apples, gooseberries, apricots, and an apple tree. And a thornapple. It was magical - I hope yours turns magical too! Your aunt Cedes.
Thanks! I doubt we'll get any berries this year, but between bird netting and the cat, hopefully we can keep them away in future years! I miss the Franklin house and its super awesome yard, and the cottage in all of its falling-down-ness. ah, auld lang syne . . .
Oh my, so much work! . . . . I love peonies, too, and irises. I transplanted some irises last year and --hooray!-- most of them "took." Some of them are even blooming. Some didn't get the chance since Pat mistakenly lopped them with the weed wacker. ;-)
ah ha! yes, it's been a lot of work. i am eternally grateful to my mum and sister for planting my garden, else i'm quite sure it wouldn't have happened.
that "potager" (don't think i'll ever be able to use that word without quotes) used to have tiger lily bulbs, which i tried to transplant. looks like most of them bloomed, hooray!
and congrats on the irises!
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