We just can't seem to get going on any projects because of the rain and cold. The last two days have been warmer and rain free so we are raking up a storm trying to beat the next round of rain storms due to begin on Saturday night or Sunday morning.
The side lawn is very soggy. I still need to rake the leaves out from around the climbing rose bushes and maybe give them a quick trimming and a little fertilizer. Everything is just so brown except for the lawn, it is greening up nicely. Too bad it is soggy and squishy. I would like to fertilize but it is just too wet to walk on.
Today was spent raking leaves out of the rose bed, trimming the lavender, trimming the roses, and fertilizing the fruit trees with Jobe's Fruit Tree spikes.
Here is the before shot. Notice all the leaves, unruley lavender, and overgrown rose bushes.
And now the after shot with everything trimmed. What you can't see is the bleeding photographer. My hands have at least 15 spots where thorns became embedded in my hands. Ironically it is the smaller thorns that hurt more. And no I did not have gloves on. I cannot work with gloves. When I was working and needed to wrench on an engine I hardly ever wore gloves.
If you use Jobe's spikes, Ace Hardware currently has a rebate on them. They are on sale for $7.99 and have a rebate of $5.00 making the final cost $2.99 for 12 jumbo spikes with a bonus 3 additional spikes. You can apply for 2 rebates each for the Fruit trees, Trees and Shrubs, or Evergreens. Preen, Round Up, and Ortho Weed b Gon all have rebates available. The Ace Rewards program also is giving double points on these products.
On the list for tomorrow is level the large cement bird bath in the front hosta bed. The bed is rather new and because R used a rototiller to loosen the soil, before I planted the hostas, the soil sank a little and now the bird bath is askew.
I also need to trim the two smaller rose beds, rake leaves out of the tulips across the back of the house, rake the leaves out of the remaining 3 hosta beds, and replace all my label spikes that popped out of the ground because of the frost. So tomorrow will basically be more raking, raking, and raking.
With each passing year, the spring clean up becomes easier as we clear out brush that grabs every leaf that blows by. Also with each passing year, our driveway get wider. When we purchased the house the driveway was so covered with decayed leaves and pine needles that it was just two tire tracks. Once we shoveled all the debris from the driveway we were disappointed that the driveway was rather narrow. Well lo and behold it was not. It merely had two feet of overgrown lawn on each side. We edged a little more this spring and we think we have found the edge on both sides. The last remaining bits of dirt and sod were used to fill in low areas in the lawn.
I am still bummed about the lack of spring flowers. I did though uncover one very small daffodil called Tete a Tete. So here for your viewing pleasure....the only spring flower blooming in my flower beds.
This hosta bed tends to be very dry. I don't know if it is because the pine tree blocks the rain or if the pine just soaks up all the moisture. We added some mulch to see if we could keep some moisture in the soil. I normally don't use mulch because it is so difficult to rake up the leaves and twigs in the spring.
This rose is called Purple Carpet and it by far has the strongest rose scent of all my roses.
This photo is of one of my window boxes that is planted with chives. Originally I had several other herbs in there but they didn't survive the winter. The chives multiplied and now it is just chives. I really like the looks of the window box planted with chives. I do not however like the looks of the shingles and cannot wait until the house is painted.
And what would my garden blog be without a gratuitous photo or two of my black irises.
While shopping with my sister on Saturday we stopped by my favorite place to buy plants. It is located in Spring Arbor and is called The Hobbit Place. I purchased two more 'black' plants. One has black foliage and is a black snakeroot called 'Hillside Black Beauty' and the other is a black viola called 'Black Magic'.
