Every day I tell myself that I am going to blog when I'm done with the chores... yeah, that! It seems they are never ending, and this unusually cold & snowy winter has left me with some scraggly looking perennials. Luckily, except for one lavender shrub and some Salvia, it looks like they may make a comeback, although time will tell if they are too damaged to look good anymore! Here are some of the things that have made me cringe...
This is my hummingbird garden. It's right below my deck and is a very visible and usually comforting feature of my yard. It is filled with Salvia, Catmint, Rosemary, a potted Sumac, ornamental grass, and water lilies. The top pic is the way it should look come summer, unfortunately I had to remove massive amounts of dead tissue and the bottom pic is the way it looks now! I think I will have to replace the Salvia, but will place some potted flowers there in the interim for the hummingbirds when they come. It is said that the same hummingbirds visit the same places year to year, so it is always exciting to welcome them back. I usually have several there every day but it looks like I may have to supplement with a feeder for the first time until the new plants get established. The little pond is also where we get dragonflies laying their eggs. I cleaned it out yesterday and found my 2 goldfish survived their 3rd winter, amazing, and we now have 2 frogs that have taken up residence!
I have been pulling weeds like crazy, and this picture shows nothing is perfect all the time! I think too many times I show a close up pic of something nice but crop out the bad, LOL! This area does have many perennials starting to show growth at the ground level, but I need to get the weeds out of the way to find them! This area holds ornamental grass, Clematis, Bee Balm, Oregano, Yarrow, Fennel, Catmint, Gaura and some other random beneficial insect stuff that I can't remember until it leafs out!
Got Weeds?
The above 2 pics are of the same area during summer, a big difference!
Found this pot in the upper pic that I think I had meant to throw in the trash last fall but never made it that far... good thing since the "dead" plant in there survived winter with its roots exposed and is now blooming - needless to say I quickly gave it a home (lower pic)!
Granny, are you proud? I did it, finally! I made this a kids project and they thought it was a lot of fun. The carrot napkins went in this past weekend and are under a board hoping for good germination. If you are wanting more success in germinating your carrots, check out this tutorial from Annie's Kitchen Garden, thanks, Gran!
We also purchased a large rack for our patio to harden off seedlings. I had a small wire one last year but it is falling apart and this one is better suited to being left outdoors. In keeping with my rule of everything having at least 2 purposes, this fit the bill well. In addition to hardening off my seedlings, during the summer I will fill it with container plants to act as a screen for all the meters and phone boxes the original builder was so kind to install smack dab in the middle of our patio - and as my husband demonstrates above, it can sleep our family of 4 in 12 square feet! Don't laugh... it's tempting! To be honest, it's larger than my husband's sleeping racks aboard ship, so with an added pillow, he's right at home. Speaking of, hubby went to sea again Monday night, only a couple of weeks this time, but the big deployment has been moved several times and now we are hearing May, it is frustrating since he was originally supposed to deploy in November, we have been in the "make no plans" mode for too long. Off to make use of this nice weather today... got weeds?
You all crack me up, only people sleeping in ship's quarters would look at a shelf and see a bed, though it is quite long!....makes me think of the Seinfeld episode when Cramer had the Japanese business men sleeping in his dresser.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I wanted to mention that your problem is putting chore completion before blog time. i still have a sink of dirty dishes waiting for me, but here I am blogging, lol. Clearly why my house is a mess and yours is not. :)
Loved the look-see at what you've been up to. Thanks for the tour! Got a kick out of hubby stretched out on the plant rack . . . he actually looks pretty comfy.
ReplyDeleteI just noticed this past weekend that even though my garden beds haven't begun to dry out yet, they are sprouting some very healthy looking weeds! Arrrggh . . . gotta get on top of those before they take up permanent residence and multiply.
Kelly, I have a sink full of dirty dishes, too, and some dried potting soil all over my living room (I started some more seeds recently). I'm a wreck! :-P
ReplyDeleteErin, your garden looks great! Even with the weeds. :P
No weeds! Of course, I've been working my butt off for three weeks now, getting the gardens in shape. We won't talk about the front yard just yet. Until they get our irrigation water turned on (was supposed to be three days ago), I won't do any weeding or cleanup out there. I do have a sink full of dirty dishes. My new dishwasher just won't load itself.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the carrot seed mats! I have mine all glued and hanging from hangers in the laundry room. They'll be planted next week. In the meantime, my radish mats are showing some green, and I'm hoping the dogs didn't tear up the lettuce mats too badly, sunning themselves in the warm bed. I also have spinach mats planted, but nothing showing there yet.
Great post Erin, loved how you showed the imperfection of beginnings. I want to try these seed mats too. Peace
ReplyDeleteYour garden is gonna be so great come summer!
ReplyDeleteKelly, I forgot about the Seinfeld episode, LOL! Kenneth, I have a mental image of you with potting soil sprinkled all over and self sowing going on around the couch :)!! You all want more time for chores, I want more time for blogging, the grass is always greener huh? Maybe that's why I like ripping it out and replacing it with raised beds!
ReplyDeleteHahaha. I tend to crop out the bad too. Who wants to see a flooded garden?
ReplyDeleteI love your garden. Ours is it a blank canvas at the moment. It's hard to figure out where to begin when everything needs work!
Thomas, ours was completely void of any life besides weedy grass when we started, it's taken about 5 years to get it this way, but the good news is that after about 3 years, you can divide your own plants so you can expand for free! (I'm still doing it, and still relocating plants to better places...it never ends!)
ReplyDeleteLol... Erin... I live in a studio. There is dirt pretty much everywhere, and my seed-starting metal shelving unit with the fluorescents? Right next to the couch. I dropped a tray the other day and still haven't cleaned up... But I have tomorrow off work, so after physical therapy, I can focus on getting my ship in shape!
ReplyDelete