I steal away briefly to get some gardening done. Six divisions were made from the half of one hosta given to to me and planted down in the drain field garden with the daffodils from last fall.
Another smaller leaved hosta was also divided into six pieces and planted along what will be another path leading to the drain field garden from the upper part of the driveway.
The roadside vegetable garden got some attention on this fine, sunny and warm day. I seeded some more sugar snap peas and spinach to fill in the gaps. Lettuce, snap peas, spinach, beets, radish and leeks have all germinated and live after the eight inches of snow from a couple of weeks ago and the light snow yesterday. It's not like it has really been warm yet either until today. Warmth should speed things up a bit and visible rows of green will become noticeable.
On the left is one of Bulbarella's flower beds that frames the roadside vegetable garden. It is on a slight rise above the level of the vegetable garden and I have been defining its edges with rocks picked from the soil as the appear.
In this long shot I am not liking the line of this bed at all. I think it will need to be adjusted. Much of my gardening just flows naturally working with the land as it is, knowing full well it can be refined over time. Sometimes I just need to plant things. Sometimes I just need to garden.
Still I can't have the planes flying over head and looking down on this squiggly line.
The apple trees are coming into full bloom. One of my suggested chores is to give the apple trees a major thinning/pruning to encourage better apple production. Now they make tons of small apples. The preference is for fewer large apples.
A species tulip, Tulipa bakeri 'Lilac Wonder' perhaps, is said to perennialize better than most tulips. This patch is making another appearance. There are some nice looking tulips in this group.
Next comes the plumbing.
But tomorrow I will go do some work for Client #4. There might be a little time left over for my own new garden when I get back.
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5 comments:
Loling at you and your squiggly lines seen from airplanes!
It wasn't me (I?) who made the suggestion about keeping the apple trees small, was it? Because I do feel that way, very much. A fruit tree, esp a deciduous fruit tree, should never be so tall that the gardener cannot reach the upper-most fruit hanging from its branches. Call it a dogma.
About that tulip, I must be confused... hybrid tulips don't naturalize outside Clyde? Because it snowed, like, yesterday. I seem to remember that you recently blogged about tulips recently added to the client's garden. Maybe the answer is there.
Aaanyway, I have that tulip too--this year for the first time--but it's come and gone already and I don't think I mentioned it on the blog. After the foliage dies down, I'm going to tip 'em out of the pots and inspect for offsets.
Goodness that was a lot of work. It all is looking great. Uncle Ernie I see is approving.
Hope you had time after #4. It's nice to have work but also nice to be home taking care of business.
Is it true that it takes 7 yrs for an apple tree to do anything good? I heard the first yr. pull all off--second yr. pull 1/2 off. Third yr. have it all.
Chuck, these apple trees are already way beyond keeping small enough to pluck fruit from the uppermost branches. I have noticed in some orchards they keep them short and well contained though.
These species tulips are from central asia to the mediterranean so the cold snow won't bother most of them. Hybridizing often weakens plants durability at the expense of flowers and what tulips do not like is wet soil in dormancy. They like a dry resting period. Our sloping well drained soil helps.
Lola that is the idea, to reduce the number of flowering spurs to encourage fewer full sized fruit. In many orchards regular pruning plus a chemical treatment at blooming time reduces fruit set. Seven years may be on the long side for a happy grafted fruit tree to produce, but yes it takes years for a newly planted tree to reach full production.
Hi Christopher, I was getting ready to comment and scrolled down reading the others, when Vera's showed up! Gack, as Our Friend Ben would say! HA Anyway, I love the red roof rafters so much, what an excellent idea. Glad to hear you are having the warmth too. It is making everything zoom into summer it seems. I posted some photos of the Black Jack today. He is quite the handsome dude. :-)
Frances
Really Vera. What a thing to come home to. Now off you go. I don't get many of those thank goodness.
Frances, I have spotted the very first signs of the Jacks emerging here. Another day of warm sun and then an afternoon shower.Perfect.
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