Oh my, what a mess. I didn't get leaf mulch on most of this garden last fall, so the clean-up is much more time consuming. Plus all the edging, and since this is in a labyrinth shape, I do like the edges to be fairly straight and concentric. Each year the grass from the pathways encroaches, so there is always a bit of sod removal to be done in the spring. After raining all week, we got a sun break this afternoon, and I got the back 'tall boy' bed done.
Also got the repellent section done. Looks like the tansy is hanging in, and perhaps one of the fleabanes. Need to beef up the plants in this section. Seems a lot of what I plant here are not hardy enough to over-winter.
I also lightly pruned the blueberries - snipped out dead wood and cut the tops down to about my chin level. These shrubs are starting to bud out which makes pruning easier, although I'm never quite sure how much to take off. I've read that heavier pruning will yield larger fruit, but I also think that regular watering contributes to fruit size. Hoping to run a soaker hose along both the blue and raspberries, maybe on a timer if I get fancy.
I'm puzzled by the rhubarb. For the past few years, it has been noticeably weak and puny. My approach this year is to give it lots of fertilizer and see if it has perhaps just depleted the soil over the years. I got this from Mom, and Dad was unsuccessful at killing it over the years despite his tendency to mow it wherever it dared to spread its arms past his strict Marine demarcation of the flower beds - straight and precise. I do have a backup plant down by the pond which I believe is doing well, it's sitting in a pretty damp spot and never really got dug in, I think I just set it on a mole hill several years ago.
Lost my best buddy yesterday. She was 13, which was rather pushing her life expectancy limits (10-12 years for both boxers and shepherds). About a year ago she developed a fatty tumor (lipoma). The vet tried to drain the lipoma, but unfortunately found a second cancerous tumor next to the lipoma. We opted to put her down while she was still under anesthesia rather than trying to remove the tumors and whatever subsequent treatment she would have needed for the cancer. Even with these rather grotesque tumors, she had been active and healthy, although her mobility was becoming compromised. She had a great life on the farm, and I will forever miss her head on my knee. I plan to plant a red maple, Acer rubrum 'FranksRed' for her.
After some fairly mild sunny days, we've settled into a steady rain pattern that looks like it may be here for awhile. Gary is using the time to straighten out the barn quite a bit, and I'm tackling de-cluttering the den. It's been 5 years since I shut down my home business and I still have piles of office supplies. Tracy invited me to bring what I don't want down to her place, which I did, and she'll go through it and either use or donate the excess to a thrift store close to her. That cleared up quite a bit of space. Now tackling Mom & Dad's photo albums. I've scanning quite a few into my computer (particularly the older ones) but really should figure out how to use one of the many cloud-based photo-sharing programs so anyone in the family can nab what might be of interest to them (or simply look through them). I'm also considering ditching my corner desk. I really like the design, but it is particle board construction with fake wood grained plastic trim and is looking pretty ratty (I've certainly gotten my value out of it, I think I paid $300 for it many years ago). I may move Kim's oak drop-leaf table in and perhaps get a stand-alone cabinet for files and what-not. No one else seems to want Kim's table, I think the younger generation has little appreciation for craftsmanship or antique furniture, they seem to prefer Ikea crap for reasons that elude me.
I keep trying to make some sense of this blog feature, but it rather eludes me. I'd like to organize it in some fashion, but it appears to be more of a stream-of-consciousness feature. I think I'll just roll with that and forget trying to tweak it to my preference. Or ditch it. Haven't really decided which way to roll.
Got all set up to pressure wash the sidewalks today, but our electric washer kept down-powering to 'fence' mode which is just not enough go-power to get the black sludge off the concrete. So, sent Gary into the barn for the noisy but more powerful gas washer, and he was unable to locate it anywhere. We both scoured all the outbuildings and the basement (sometimes we overwinter it there), I sent an email to the boys to see if we loaned it to one of them, all to no avail. We may have been burgled again, likely when we were on our last road trip. Dang.
