Tuesday
I worked outside yesterday, really pushed myself. It was sunny and hot, but there were two quick 15 minute rain showers. I was dragging all day, so I got into a routine of working for 20 minutes and sitting for 10, but it still was quite a lot of working time with the many hours I was out there. I called it quits around 6:00, took a cool bath with Epsom salts - I was overheated and a hot bath did not sound good at all, then laid down with exhaustion and fell fast asleep.
I planted some of the plants from my recent plant acquisitions, making fairly good progress. I started with the 15 hellebores from Barry Glick that a few Mid Atlantic friends went in on. He has been raising his own strain and I've been wanting to get some for years. I planted them in the garden that I call the Pond Path.
Then I worked on the Arbor Retreat garden. I raked and hauled off accumulated leaves in the larger section, not the smaller section where the shrubs are. I got the loppers out and cut back a lot of dead branches of a lilac in that shrub area to make it easier to get at the leaves. I hope to finish that up first thing today. I needed to get on my hands and knees to pull out some of the leaves that get matted and tangled in a low growing mounding azalea and around the hellebores clumps. That part is pretty tedious and took an hour in and of itself. I pruned out dead peony stalks from last year and ratty hellebores leaves. Then I planted 6 phlox that look like phlox divaricata but are actually some kind of hybrid. The nice long swath of alliums that I planted along the walkway last fall are getting ready to bloom.
After that I moved the four panel trellis in the Lemon Garden. I had thought it would be good for hiding the propane tank for the kitchen stove, but it never really did the trick. Mike is working on framing the decorative screen that I hope will be a better solution. I got the black composite screen last spring, but needed something to frame it and anchor it in the ground. I recently found black composite 2x4s online, so that little project is now underway. I'll still use the trellis in that garden, but boy does it need some work. It is starting to rust so it needs to be painted, and parts of it where the panels attach to each other are falling apart. Mike has been talking about getting a sand blaster - seems like we have quite a few things that it would be really useful for.
Then I started working in the Turret Garden doing the same kinds of things that I did in the Arbor Retreat. Raking, cutting back ratty hellebores leaves, and some planting. I got the 11 lamium 'Purple Dragon' planted from the recent Black Creek haul. I love the way this plant looks along the low stacked stone retaining wall. It started dying out in recent years and it has been on my list to fill it back in.
For the planting, I've been using my "Laura version" power planter auger. It works really well. With the sturdy handle on the high powered drill, it doesn't often get away from me, but every once in a while it catches on something while augering and takes me by surprise. It happened just once yesterday - really wrenches my arm when it does and somehow it put a big bruise on the back of my left hand. Still, much easier for me than using a shovel!
Before calling it quits for the day, I started cleaning out the garage. I do this every couple of months because Mike tends to clutter it up to the point where there isn't much room to walk. That is one of the things where we are complete opposites. I can't concentrate on any job at hand if there is a lot of clutter about, whereas he just pushes stuff out of the way enough for the work surface he will be using. I hauled out at least 15 empty cardboard boxes, consolidated all the tools and various bits of hardware which he left out into a single pile for him to put away - he says my idea of where they should go isn't his idea of where they should go, threw away a dozen half full bottles of water and soda, emptied pails of water that he had been using to clean something, folded up a tarp, and other miscellaneous stuff like that to reduce the clutter footprint. Looks better but still could use a full day to actually put things away.
I was so physically exhausted by the end, but so mentally satisfied. I was wondering if I would be stiff and sore this morning, but I feel ok. I hope to get another full gardening day in today too 
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