Sunday, March 30, 2014

things are perking up!

and starting to come in at the nursery, too!
This week it rained, and rained, and rained. We've had 9" for the month of march, a new record. No wonder my back yard looks like a swimming pool. It hasn't deterred the daffodils, though. Gotta love them!




 
Next fall, I'm planting WAY more of the fancy guys. LOVE the fancy ones and you can just never have enough daffodils.
 
This week, a trip to Costco produced a combo bag with 2 more peonies, a couple of white iris, and a black daylily. They had perennials on sale at fred meyer, so I came home with a white ground cover, a Spanish lavender, and a black and white carnation that looks like it will be pretty cool. I also planted my peas, but it's still a bit too early for the other seeds.
 
It looks like all of our little fruit trees will be blooming soon, so the fact that the deer ate them last fall didn't hurt them TOO much, although I think fig newton has bit it from deer eating and the cold winter.
The bananas look like they survived, but the artichokes did not, pooh. At least the artichokes are cheaper and easier to get.
 
Next week, more bark, finishing a past due present, and chopping a mushroom log. We'll see.....

Sunday, March 16, 2014

look what we made......

Just a little dry stream bed in the back corner. That's 4 tons of rocks, there, all done in one day. No wonder I'm tired.
I think I turned out pretty good for a couple of amateurs with a shovel. It will look even better once the rocks get washed off (they're really muddy), and we get some plants around the edges to soften it out. On to the next project!
 
This week, we also went and got this great little tree at Costco. It's a coral bark maple and it was $30. At the local nursery, the same tree sells for $150, so it was quite a score. We hauled it home and planted it on Friday, along with a load of stinky dirt. The stinky dirt was used to fill up the garden planters and finish off planting the raspberries, still need one more, and I think it'll be a blueberry, pink lemonade, just for fun. We also planted the other pole apple.
 
Things acquired this week include, that great little maple, some canna lilies for the shady spot next to the house, and another cute carnation. Most of the time was spent weeding and spreading dirt.
 
Next up, we're on the road today for a load of bark to mulch in the front, more weeding, and working on the moon garden borders.
Gotta love spring!


 
 

Sunday, March 9, 2014

I know I've said this before....

but I just have to say it again....I HATE spring ahead. I've been staggering around like a zombie, trying to figure out what time it is all morning. HATE IT!! The only good news is, we won't have to change the clocks until the end of October. Why can't we just leave well enough alone??!!. Every year when this happens, I seriously consider moving to Arizona (where they don't spring ahead), or Hawaii (don't do it there either). I think Hawaii would be a much better choice.

ANYWAY......This week the deluge continued. Although it's been raining like crazy (110% of our normal rainfall for the entire month in the first 10 days), it's actually been pretty warm too...so the daffodils  and others are starting to think it's spring. YEAH SPRING!!


 
We did have one semi-dry day, and I used the opportunity to fill the garden beds with the dirt from the truck. The beds are ready to be planted....just need to dry out a bit, the potatoes are ready to go. Now I need MORE dirt.....WAY more dirt,  a  little at a time.
 
It's supposed to be drier (finally!!) this week, and I have a laundry list of things I want to get done.....lay out the dry stream bed in the back....finish painting the shop....weed like crazy...the lawn is needing to be mowed and raked....and I'll be meeting with the solar guy on Friday to get an estimate for solar panels. We'll see how that goes.
 
This week, the plant acquisitions were, a gorgeous black carnation, some daylilies and a couple of peonies from Costco (love Costco!), and a couple of pots to plant my raspberry shortcakes in.
 
Next week....DRY (hopefully) Tons of work to do....
 
So, although I HATE spring ahead, I LOVE spring....there's something new in the garden every single day, and it's amazing!

 

Sunday, March 2, 2014

ok, spring....any time now

This week, they're predicting snow again....really? snow? again?
I don't think it's happening here, though....way too warm, so it'll just be rain, rain, and more rain.....

I really need to get out and plant the strawberry fill ins I bought for the tower, the two bush raspberries I couldn't resist, and a couple of other things, but I think it's going to be a bit too wet.

The fence seems to be deterring the deer in the back yard for now.....they were out there all week (ate my tree peony, the bums),  but didn't make it into the back so far.

The new acquisitions this week were, a white carnation for the moon garden, some really cool pink and lime green daylilies from Costco, another pole apple, two raspberry shortcakes for the garden, some primrose arculata I couldn't resist and a black iris from edeilweiss perennials. The stuff from edelweiss is quite nice and healthy. I highly recommend them.

Hopefully, we'll be able to get the canopy off the truck today so that we can go get some dirt.. It's much cheaper to go get it (like, half the price), than it is to have delivered. This will be the first of many dirt trips, I'm sure. I'll use this one to top off the garden beds, plant the rapsberries, and start working more dirt into the back. Eventually we'll switch to bark mulch to help with less watering, and keeping the dirt in place.

The good news is, there is some hope.....
I'll have daffodils any day, lots of them....

There's just something happy about these guys.