Earth Day Weekend Garden Report

The violets of our old house are not numbered amongst the plants who made the trip with us. I was just starting to feel a little badly that I hadn't brought at least a single clump of them...when these pretty little things suddenly began blooming out in front of this house.

As the Full Frog or Planter's Moon made our evenings glisten and gleam this weekend, grape hyacinths have begun springing up along the outer edges of the front garden. Here, a pair of them frame a columbine plant and one of the pink Dutch hyacinths.

In fact, all of the Dutch hyacinths I planted in the fall have turned out to be pink, which makes me grin. I'm a bigger fan of the purple/blue ones, but these smell as lovely.

This weekend, Somewhere Joe pointed out that spring has made me prolific, and the season is certainly inspiring. Not only are new green things appearing in the border daily--old friends like moonbeam coreopsis and purple coneflower and assorted phloxes--but I also have a lot to get done when spring arrives. It's the nature of my job that I'll be busy at work when June begins busting out, and I like to head off to work in the mornings then knowing that all's well in the garden.

Toward that end, each morning this weekend I've been working on finishing off a little more of the front garden bed. Particularly, the far end where I wanted to get a nice big birdbath installed. We have so many birds around that I know it'll be popular...and it's always fun to watch them.

I had dug out this bed and broken all the sod into squares back in the fall, but had run short to finish the project then, with the moving and winter bearing down on us. So at least that tough part of the job was done...all I had to do was seperate all the dirt from the clumps of grass, which were just beginning to green up again.

By late this morning, I'd finished off the bed and was ready to embed some stepping stones and also the birdbath itself. Yah, I know the path of stones isn't exactly level, but they are reasonably secure, and water won't pool on them on very rainy days.

Here's a close-up of the birdbath, which you'll recognize from last summer in the old orchard garden. The stones in front are mica-flecked or have crystals in them, so they really catch and play with the sunlight.

They look a little stark here, but I hope soon to have them planted with some dianthus and creeping phlox, which ought to thrive on the spillover water from the birdbath and the full sun.

I'm glad to have this section finished off. It will be at least partially a vegetable bed, with some tomatoes and another go at the Three Sisters Garden.

Here's my next target: the section around the lamp-post. It will be slower work here, owing to both underground electric (danger Midnight Gardener, danger...)and an overgrown clematis vine I don't want to damage. But I imagine about the time I've finished that, the lilies should have begun to emerge, and then it will be safe to install the soaker hose throughout the whole layout.

Not all of us were hard at work this weekend. Em just loves to lie in the sun and bake her head, occasionally looking up as I dash past to the shed for some tool or other. It takes quite a bit of coaxing to convince her to come inside when its time to head off to work.


Owen's also been busy around the house, not only scraping off old exterior paint and re-glazing windows, but also replacing the old landscape timbers that line the backyard gardens with some of the new rocks we recently acquired.


It was while he was on a ladder working on the former project Friday afternoon, when he overheard two of the neighbors talking about us...one of them's a bit deaf, so it wasn't difficult. The reviews are good, though: sounds like they are very impressed with the work we're doing to clean up the place...but he also heard one of them refer to me as "the young one."

It's not untrue, four years seperate us in my favor, so I got a bit of a giggle from it all. He, on the other hand, is taking it a little more seriously. Meanwhile, Em's trying to convince him that they might think he's younger if he also took her for a walk around the block every day.

I was out examining newly sprouted things when this robin came bobbing along to inspect the new garden. I was happy to watch him try out the vantage point from each of the taller rocks in the edging, before hopping up to survey things from the fence. The sun was already sinking, so I wasn't disappointed that he didn't visit the birdbath. I imagine it was a little chilly. But I'll be watching for him in the morning sun.

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter and Blessed Spring from us here on Not Wisteria Lane, to all of you!

I was up in time to hear the early morning drumming of the downy woodpecker who likes to bang against the outside of the computer area almost every day.

It's a pretty cool sound, though you can put easy money on it totally firing up the cat each morning. After a minute or two of just enjoying his rhythms, I snuck out the front door and was able to reach my camera hand around the arbor vitae to catch this shot of him before he flew off.

Here we go: this never fails. Each spring, I'm keeping an eye on 10 million different clusters of crocus foliage, trying to guess where the first blossom will appear.

And every year, the first flower comes from some spot I wasn't even watching. Here's our first Purple Pretty, springing from a clump of shasta daisy foliage this morning.

Here's the bunnies Owen and I surprised one another with this morning, each of them as different as we two. Mine to him is the cute, cuddly guy with the carrot and the plaid bowtie. His to me was this little thug-bunny with the bling and the colors. Heh heh...he even sings a bit of "In Da Club" (Go shorty, it's yer birthday...) when you squeeze his paw. Quite a pair, aren't we...er, they?

I shouldn't be surprised that Em's been a little wistful around the empty rabbit cage lately. There's no reason why she shouldn't be missing George. We all are, especially on his big holiday.

So far, we've been successful in resisting the temptation to fill his void with some new little bunny, or a pair of chicks or a duck (oh, how Badum would love that...)or something even less predictable.

Better to focus on the kids we have already...especially since our boy Badum seems to have a renewed spirit of adventure, having escaped twice into the Great Outdoors this past week. Fortunately, the bird-filled skies just mesmerize this kitty and he's fairly easy to corral.

I had my own celebration of spring today with a bit of yard work, getting the front lawn raked and assorted shrubs at the front of the house pruned into tidy shape for the coming season. When that was through, I tackled the years of old dried foliage of past seasons that had built up on the lump of a hill in our backyard which houses the septic system.

There's all kinds of things growing there...looks like asters and goldenrod and some daisy variety, as well as something that may be russian sage or something similar. Clearing away all the old stuff opened up all the green clumps of foliage underneath and hopefully they'll grow better for the exposure.

Since being atop the hill (I call it Mount Dump-it) affords full views of the neighbors' yards and the similar lumps in their own backyards, working up there afforded me the chance to meet another of our neighbors. They are quite happy to see someone taking an interest in making things look better, which is encouraging. Of course having neighbors to talk to at all while I'm at assorted chores is still a new thing.


Hey, look what happens to your shoelace when you don't realize it's become untied while you're raking! Fortunately, this is last year's pair, dedicated now only to gardening.

I started pruning some of the unnecessary branches from the long-untended apple tree, as well, but the remainder of that project remains for another day and a greater variety of tools than my hand pruners.

However, I did bring in a few branches to see if I can force some blooms from them.
They'll be a nice foil to the african violet, which as you can see is also helping to move the whole Spring Thing along.

In yet another sign of the changing season, did you know that yesterday was National Pillow Fight Day? I had no idea--you should totally check out the video at JMG and watch those feathers fly!

Well, the rain that was supposed to come overnight arrived around 6:30 this morning, which made the morning a little lazy, at least as regards the actual garden project. As it turned out, a few other things popped up that needed my attention, so it's all good.

I'm definitely going to miss that view (above) out the back of the house here. Living in this sort of secluded woodland setting has been really terrific, and now we're moving to something like the suburbs, with plenty of neighbors incredibly close. I'm sure that will be fine, and maybe even fun, but its sure to make for a different experience than we've had lately.

I did get back to Harwich and "the Project" this afternoon, and made some pretty decent progress. It's not photogenic work, nor particularly interesting. Just the business of beating the upturned clods of grass and such to loosen all the good dirt that's hanging on the roots and then discarding the "empty" clods.

I'm also actually laying the rock edging of the garden, too, though, which is a little more interesting.

As I worked, there was the crow to listen to. He perched high in the tree behind the house and seemed to narrate my efforts to the bird community. After a while a few of his fellows showed up and they squawked together for a bit, before taking wing.

Distantly, I can hear a clock bell sounding the hour. I love that; it's one of the things I missed most about moving out of Provincetown. I know there are plenty of "city folk" who move into a town where there's one, and they petitioned to have it silenced. I think this is wrong. It's nice to know the hour without having to carry your watch/cel phone/pager/blackberry/camera thingy.

And those neighbors are appearing here and there, wandering over to "satisfy their curiosity" or letting the walked dog drag them over for a closer examination of the work. It seems like a nice neighborhood, if no Wisteria Lane (actually, I believe I'm seeing a lot of wisteria growing in people's yards there...). All the more reason for a nice floral barrier between us and them! ; )

Late in the afternoon, a church carillion played for a few minutes. I didn't recognize the tune today, but yesterday was Beethoven's Ode to Joy.

Just before dark, a squadron of Canada geese honked to announce their descent overhead, as they made for the pond at the end of the street. I watched them disappear over behind the treetops...and then heard the annoyed quack of ducks disturbed.

I was happy with the progress I made today, nearly completing the front of the garden bed (I worked until dark after taking this last photo, so made more ground than shows here.), so that its actually starting to look sort of decent.

This installation will take a little longer than I'd planned, and I may end up abbreviating the effort in order to get all the plants moved in good time...though I'll try to get as much done as possible these next few days.