It’s been a bit since I’ve had time to update. In the meantime, spring has sprung on our property.

Forsythia:

Anonymous climber from Costco:

Fringe Plant:

Almond Tree: For the past two weekends, our primary preoccupation has been with the irrigation system. With 24 separate stations, it’s been a big job to get it in working order. We have three more heads and one bubbler to replace.

On the planting front, Landry planted two bleeding hearts and three dahlias among the irises above my patio bed last weekend. We’ll see what comes up. Hopefully, these new arrivals will provide some color until I can plant more irises in August.

We are coming down to the heavy jobs of turning over the soil in the veggie and patio beds and laying weed block and mulch on the veggie garden paths. Then we will finally be able to get to some planting!

After three weeks of what was probably the flu, I ventured outside into my yard and vegetable garden today. The sunshine and fresh air were delicious. With some help from my boys and a lot of help from my spouse, we managed to prune all of the roses, butterfly bushes, Mexican sage, canna and hydrangeas. (How is it that it took hours to do all of that and resulted in many truckloads of clippings, but only took seconds to type it?) I think we are a bit late, but we’ll see. We also fed the roses their annual half to full cup of rabbit food. I also made arrangements to have our fruit and nut trees pruned, sprayed with dormant oil and free copper, and fed with organic fertilizer later this week.

Then, the planning and dreaming started! I surveyed my veggie garden and . . . well, let’s say I have the opportunity to have a lot of fun there. 🙂

Here’s how my six beds look today.

The good news is that the crab grass in the last bed pictured did seem to be deterred by black plastic. Everything else, however, looks in need of a fresh start. My plan is to start with new weed block and mulch on the paths before weeding the beds and turning in a nice layer of steer compost in each. After that, I’m not sure what I’ll plant this year. Therein, lies the fun!

I do want to try one new thing this year, though. I bought these lovely morning glory seeds today.

I’m going to sow them around the walls of the garden in hopes the horse wire will act as a trellis and give my garden some beautifully colored walls. My concern is that the wires will become too hot in the sun and watering may be an issue, but I figure it’s worth a try for $4.40.

While at the store, I couldn’t resist these lovelies, either.

These are destined for my patio, along with a nice top coat of mulch to block weeds.

I also want to clean up my bird feeders and replant the planters on our deck.

For tonight, however, I’m spent from the day’s pruning and planning. I foresee a hot shower, a hot cup of chocolate coffee, and a couple of episodes of Midsomer Murders to round out a perfect day.