Sunday, April 9, 2017

Back To Spring

Does this look wild to you? I am afraid I am truly to compulsive of a gardener to ever fully blend in with the scenery. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day. Spring was back. The motorcycles were out in force. I lost count of how many of them pointed and waved.



















I blend in better during the time of the Lush if you consider a floral explosion your notion of blending in. At the end of the barren time, my tidy shows. At least it can't be considered a conventional expression of the idea of a garden. There are no mulched beds.



















My garden simply rises from the leaf covered ground.





















I tended to several chores at a leisurely pace. Chard, beets, carrots, radish and more spinach, lettuce and sugar snap peas were sowed in the roadside vegetable garden. The potatoes were planted before the snow. From the first sowing I got one row of lettuce, a bit of spinach and peas with the tops chewed off.

Sprouting seeds are a big problem in the garden. Sprouts are tasty and nutritious to every kind slug, snail, rolly polly and who knows what else. I am even wondering now if the earth worms are eating my sprouts. The one thing I have found that is easy and helps is granular fertilizer. It is absorbed very easily and painfully through slimy skin and spiracles. Once things are past the seedling stage all is well and there is no need for the fertilizer for the rest of the growing season. Because Dung.





















The new Cephalotaxus harringtonia 'Prostrata' were tucked safely into the moist ground. There is only a slight chance of rain mid-week. I might water them if things stay dry for a spell.

Their size is listed as 1 to 2 feet tall by 6 to 12 feet wide. Those four alone could cover the rest of this slope without the cotoneaster. We shall see. I will still be sprigging in more rooted stem pieces of the cotoneaster. I want this to look like something within three years.





















I also found the time to transplant some chionodoxa bulbs into the Great Lawn. One patch I have has been seeding quite well underneath a spirea. I thought those could be put to better more visible use.

Ten years later I have entered a new phase in the life of the garden. Maintaining what has been planted during the time of the Lush is more of a concern. The design is being fine tuned while the complexity builds. It is still just a matter of editing. Which plant here is the one I want? So many of the ingredients that have been added were meant to run wild. I'm just the referee.


1 comment:

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Don't you just love this time of year. Editing is such a pleasant occupation.