gardens, weather, spring
Mar. 22nd, 2010 10:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sherron0Saturday was just beautiful. The kind of weather you wish it always could be. Sunny, 74°, low humidity, very light breeze. The kind of weather you could get out in and do some garden work and not get all sticky with sweat.
So that's how I spent the afternoon, clearing out the flower bed. Every fall the many trees in my yard "give" me plenty of leaves, which I leave (pun, tee hee) in the garden. But come spring, the irises want their little rhizomes uncovered. So Thomas and I raked and hand-raked and swept, and generally moved leaves around. We couldn't just rake, because not only are the irises sprouted, the buttercups have been in full bloom for a while now, and are easy to break with a rake. So you have to get down on hands and knees and pull everything from around them by hand. We used some of the piles of leaves (well, mostly leaf pieces by this time of the year, actually, well on the way to compost) to fill in holes, with old compost on top to keep them from spreading back around with the wind. I also knew it was going to rain Sunday, which would help settle everything down. We also dug up all the stepping stones, which have a way of sinking over a year or two, and build up the ground underneath and around them. At one point we got tired and decided it was time for a break. We sat on the front steps, drinking our Dr. Peppers, watching the cars go by. It was practically a Hallmark moment.
We found one of the Easter Lilies has sprouted. It told it to hurry up, but there's no way it'll be big enough to even have buds by Easter. So we have purple crocuses, three different types of buttercups, and purple grape hyacinth, and a little bit of white hyacinth already blooming. The irises, a wild rose, and the day lilies are up and green, and the peonies and one Easter lily are up above ground. The forsythia and red buds have started to bloom. The maples and hackberry trees have buds.
So, what is it doing today?
Snowing of course. Snowing heavily. With big flakes. It's not below freezing, so the snow is melting as soon as it hits the ground, but it sure is wild to watch!
So that's how I spent the afternoon, clearing out the flower bed. Every fall the many trees in my yard "give" me plenty of leaves, which I leave (pun, tee hee) in the garden. But come spring, the irises want their little rhizomes uncovered. So Thomas and I raked and hand-raked and swept, and generally moved leaves around. We couldn't just rake, because not only are the irises sprouted, the buttercups have been in full bloom for a while now, and are easy to break with a rake. So you have to get down on hands and knees and pull everything from around them by hand. We used some of the piles of leaves (well, mostly leaf pieces by this time of the year, actually, well on the way to compost) to fill in holes, with old compost on top to keep them from spreading back around with the wind. I also knew it was going to rain Sunday, which would help settle everything down. We also dug up all the stepping stones, which have a way of sinking over a year or two, and build up the ground underneath and around them. At one point we got tired and decided it was time for a break. We sat on the front steps, drinking our Dr. Peppers, watching the cars go by. It was practically a Hallmark moment.
We found one of the Easter Lilies has sprouted. It told it to hurry up, but there's no way it'll be big enough to even have buds by Easter. So we have purple crocuses, three different types of buttercups, and purple grape hyacinth, and a little bit of white hyacinth already blooming. The irises, a wild rose, and the day lilies are up and green, and the peonies and one Easter lily are up above ground. The forsythia and red buds have started to bloom. The maples and hackberry trees have buds.
So, what is it doing today?
Snowing of course. Snowing heavily. With big flakes. It's not below freezing, so the snow is melting as soon as it hits the ground, but it sure is wild to watch!