Mud is my world. Mud is my name. Mud is my universe.
Got the preformed pond in the Folly Wall garden emptied, lifted, re-set and leveled. I'm always surprised by how much a bucket of water weighs ( 1 gallon = 8.3 pounds, so a partially filled 5-gallon bucket weight about 25 pounds). There was a lot of sludge on the bottom, which went onto the rather poor soil of the Storybook Garden. I was so caked with mud by the time I was done I had to peel off boots, gloves, and outer layer before I could get in the house.
I wanted to rebuild the stone raised bed wall, but it was too too muddy. We've been getting a lot of rain over the past few days and it's slowing down my gardening. Yesterday (2 April) was so wet I don't think I went outside except to feed the hens and refill the bird feeder. I've got a bucket of aconites that still need to go into the ground; I may try to do that whenever we get a break in the downpours. (No clearing in sight until Saturday; I've got laundry piling up.)
More cleanup in the Jungle Cliff area; I lifted out about a dozen young Korean (Kousa) dogwoods and potted them up for sale/rehoming. I've still got a lot of these young dogwoods (puppywoods?) in pots from the last big self-seeding year. I've decided to incorporate a lot of them into the Pine Gap planting. I've also got a lot of dead wood/damage in the northwest corner of the property, a wild spot I haven't really touched yet. I left that area alone for wildlife but I see now that we've got some major wind damage and it looks really bad. This may be the newest of the gardened areas coming into being.
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In the greenhouse, everything is doing well. I have to remind myself to water those flats and pots; in all this rain, it's easy to forget that it's bone dry in there. I potted on the hardy hydrangea seedlings. Very surprised by how well those old seeds germinated. I have no idea what colors I'll get but anything will be welcome; they are destined for the newer Tropical Garden above the grape arbor.
I really need to pot on the second batch of coleus; these are from my own saved seeds and I'm eager to see what they will look like. I'm hoping for some unusual colors/leaf forms because a few of the parent plants were purchased "fancy" types.
My pelargonium seedlings are growing like mad. I never expected it was this easy to grow geraniums from seed. if it continues to go well, this may turn into an annual thing. Same with the petunias; some of the seedlings are still smaller than I'd like, but at least 6 are a good size already and I expect they'll really take off once they get into the greenhouse when the temps are higher and more stable (we're still dipping into the high 30s/low 40sF overnight).
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Carrots are up and OK. I'd have liked to see more germination, but I'll take whatever I get. I've got a second sowing that should germinate all right with all this wet weather. Peas have finally started to emerge; no sign yet of parsnips but those are always very very slow to get going. First green shoots on the onion sets under their protective cover.
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Realized I completely forgot to tidy the Front Border. The miscanthus is still standing and I've got Siberian iris to replant and several new shrubs purchased last fall to put in. That's moved to the top of the to-do list, along with getting the second post set for the hen run repair.
In the Folly Wall Garden, the north raised bed is supposed to look like a fallen in foundation with water collected in it. I got (free) a big pre-formed plastic pond, sort of kidney shaped, that is just the thing for the space. It's been in place for a few years now, filled with water iris. I thought I got it level when I first set it, but over time it's settled more on one side than the other and that looks bad. This is the big drawback to the pre-formed ponds. Pond liner conforms perfectly to whatever hole you put it in, but the stiffer preformed plastic has a mind of its own. The north-facing wall of that raised bed has never looked good either; I put it together in haste, with whatever stones I had to hand and then the deer have knocked it around, stepping on to it to drink from the pond.
I've since acquired a few really nice big flat stones so I decided to fix things. I tore out the wall and excavated the dirt away from the pond, which is high on that side. I was hoping against hope that i could dig out enough dirt from beneath that side of the pond that it would settle of its own weight into a more level position. Dint happen. So I lifted out all the water iris and set them aside. Today I'll have to empty the pond, remove it, do some digging, then re-set it.
This isn't entirely a bad thing: over the years, it's accumulated a lot of debris on the bottom that really should come out and the water iris need to be divided and re-homed.
Once I've got it re-set level, I'll replant and refill from my water barrel and then let the rain do the rest. Then back fill and rebuild the raised bed north wall (not a big job, the section to be rebuilt is only about 7 feet long, about 3 feet tall).
This is the plan. Whether I'll get to it today is the question. We had a heavy thunderstorm roll through last night, not a lot of rain but a lot of sturm und drang. My dad always said the first big thunder wakes up the trees, and I've yet to see that not happen.
Got the Jungle Cliff tidied up, edged the border where it runs down to the lawn. Weeded and reset the small flagstone area at the base of the Jungle Cliff/deck steps. It was overgrown with Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia), ajuga, and Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum), plus some dandelions. Never one to pass up free plants ( 
) I dug all that out and set it aside. Once I had everything dug out, I had to reset the flagstones (they are in fine gravel), and haul in a couple buckets of gravel to fill up the cracks. Looks much better now.
I took down the containers that held my big Christmas/Winter display of juniper branches, holly, etc. Those empty containers have been looking forlorn for a couple of months now. I put away the big box, but filled the two long window boxes with, you guessed it, the Creeping Jenny, Star of Bethlehem, and Ajuga... plus a couple small clumps of Tradescantia (??). Watered that well and set it up on the flight of four wooden steps that I use as my "stage" for such displays, between the garage doors. Next fall, I'm going to pot up some daffodils to use in that display.
Also cleaned up the garage door area; there were some flattened cardboard boxes schedule for recycling, etc. and it just looked messy.
Refreshed the pea gravel in the little dry stream bed that runs the entire length of the Jungle Cliff. It starts under the top of the long flight of deck steps and then wends its way down under the steps and off to the side to end in a little pond filled with water iris. I have to say that idea was a good one. it would be spectacular if I ever install a recirculating pump and actually put water in it (I put down pond liner under the dry stream just in case), but even as a "virtual" streambed, it looks good. I've got it edged with big stones and I tried to make it look as natural as possible. The edges are planted with miniature hostas, miniature ferns and other small shade lovers which like it under the deck steps, where they get just enough sunlight to thrive. I'm encouraging moss on the stones as well. At night a string of very tiny solar-powered "rice lights" (each bulb no bigger than a grain of rice) randomly wanders along the course of the dry stream to mark it out.
Got around to repairing the metal edging around the circular bed in the center of the veg. It's that corrugated tin that they sell for strawberry towers. I have no idea where I got it, but it's been in there forever. Last fall I had to rip up a section and move it aside so I could dig out some nasty weeds/grass. It's finally re-set; got the circular bed tidied up as well. That holds some of my rhubarb, plus chives and some ornamental things. Right now it's bursting with yellow tulips almost ready to bloom.
Got my white plastic garden bench scrubbed. It sits against the shed wall, facing north, so very gray with mildew. I think I'll repaint it. Surprised me that it did not seem to be getting any whiter until it sat for a couple of hours in the sun to dry. I used Tile and Grout cleaner, Ajax powder, and a scrub brush; I guess the chlorine bleach in the cleaners needed time to work. I think it needs moved to another location; never gets used there.
Finally, as the sun was going down on a very windy, chilly day, I got the remaining pavers set in the little landing at the top of the Folly Wall garden steps. I went as far as i could go, but I still need to find a few more chunks of paving to fill in some gaps. For now, it's filled level with fine gravel and I'm content. Bits and pieces of flagstone, old concrete paving, etc. always are turning up somewhere; I'll set those in as I find them. That's the benefit of just "dry setting" paving in fine gravel instead of mortaring it in permanently.
Very light rain on and off all day, heavy overcast, mild temps.
Lifted, divided, and replanted snowdrops from a big clump up near the deck to about 20 small clumps and singles in the Glade.
Got the first of the two posts set in the hen run. Hiked the 80 pound bag of concrete mix up the hill in easy stages, mixed, poured, now we wait for it to set up.
Finished off what was left of a bag of mortar...perfect amount to set 7 concrete blocks on the Folly Wall corner. I've got two more blocks (reclaimed/recycled) that I want to top off the corner, but I'll wait until I get another bag of mortar, which I'll need to start slapping on the stone facing over the concrete blocks.
Got my "egg cart" scrubbed and refurbished. This is an old garden cart I painted bright yellow. I put a red cooler in it, haul it to the end of the driveway and sell my extra eggs ($1/dozen, I'm working to bring down the corporate egg industry by underselling them all *mwah ha ha ha* (strokes cat in best super-villain manner).
Pulled the last of the winter cress weeds out of the lower part of the Driveway bed. I am determined to eradicate that weed from the Driveway bed. I think it's pretty much gone from the upper part. I hoick it out anywhere it appears.
Promised a friend I'd give her some pink iris so I may dig those up this evening and deliver in the morning.
Still need to liberate more aconites for the Jungle Cliff, then get mulch for that area.
My friend who owns a large (and extremely attractive!) mobile home development has asked me to take some of the mountain of wood chips he has on the back lot. It's a lot closer than driving "up the mountain" to the Township Transfer Station. Plus, the township has been selling it's product to some company that then resells it, which I think is patently unfair since residents give their tree trimmings, brush, etc. for free to the township and have always then had the option to get back the resulting ground up mulch for free. But I digress.
The only problem is that Jerry did not want to unchain the gate into the backlot and told me I could drive around it. Which I did, but it's a slightly hair-raising, white-knuckle experience. Had to wee-jee the truck between a massive concrete pylon, a No Trespassing sign, and a giant boulder. I can do it, but I have to fold the exterior rear view mirrors back flat against the truck. Then there's the tall grass on the other side. Fortunately, nothing terrible hidden in it, no boards with nails or rusting bedsprings. But that first pass thru was pretty scary.
I made three hauls. The first was just a few buckets that I took because I wasn't sure what I'd find.
The surprise was that it's not all wood chips. The first big pile is what locally is called "stump grindings"...that mix of wood chips and dirt that results when a stump grinder is used. I hauled in one enormous load of that because it is the best fast start to making new good soil I know. I spread it thickly on some spots that I've been trying to build up in the Woodland Garden. I also used some on the lower part of the Below the Deck Garden, where the soil is clay.
The third haul was a big load of well-aged wood chips and that's going onto the Below the Deck Garden. I'll need at least 3 more truckloads to finish this one garden area. I'd also like to get mulch on the Front Border, which is scheduled for a big re-do this spring; I'm estimating another 2 loads for that.
It's not easy work, but it's not back-breaking either. I don't shovel directly into the bed of the truck. I fill up whatever big buckets/containers I have and lift them into the bed. The average 5-gallon bucket of mulch weighs about as much as a bag of groceries, so although repetitive and tedious, not too exhausting. It's also a lot easier to unload containers than to shovel off a full load.
I also moved all my hardy flats back into the greenhouse, planted second carrots, some old sweet pea seeds that I doubt are going to come up, and seeded chives into pots in the greenhouse. Very excited to see that my penstemon seeds that have been kept in the greenhouse under cold conditions have germinated and are coming up nicely. In the house, my pelargoniums have germinated as has the basil seed. A bit concerned that I'm not seeing a lot more growth on the coleus and petunia seedlings despite being on a heat mat and getting a dose of Miracle-Gro; they are probly sulking because the air temps in the house aren't into the 80s, which these plants adore.
Worried about my peas; I planted them on March 14 and I surely thought I'd see some signs of germination by now. I wonder if those intensely cold nights we had killed the seeds? It doesn't seem likely, peas are pretty frost hardy, but I like to worry.
Asparagus is starting to send up little sprouts; I'm hoping for a harvest from that bed this year, even if it's only a few spears.
