Sunday, 14 April 2024 at home I went outside to garden in the late morning only to be turned back by a cold wind and what felt like a chilly damp mist (even though the pavement stayed dry). I returned to my comfy chair and finished the book about Buffalo gardens (see yesterday’s post). When that was done, even though I very much wanted to start another book, I thought…it being two o’clock…that I should go out and do something garden-physical for one hour, just for some daily exercise. Even though I felt cold at first, I soon got involved and was out there for four hours. Past the fish tote kit ..read more

Saturday, 14 April 2024 at home The crocs sandals that I had ordered came, but despite my desire to give my sore toe room, they didn’t work….I felt my foot was slipping out the open back. The same delivery had brought Allan a pair of boat shoes with wide toe room, and they fit me, so I absconded with them (but will buy him a new pair). They have no arch support, which is not good for me (I was born with flat feet) but…lack of toe pain is my priority for gardening. We did a little project. I took all the plants, about six flats worth, off of the pallet cover that Allan had put on top of the fo ..read more

Thursday, 11 April 2024 at home The promised rainy reading weather stopped at mid morning, rather to my disappointment. As often happens when I am taken by surprise by good weather, I turned to a compost project. I had decided to put some of the assorted clumps of different kinds of sanguisorbas, including one I had to move while shifting a path and some others that had reseeded too vigorously. It can be a pest of a plant and yet is one of my favourites. I had already put one big clump in the boat and needed to build up with mulch around it. I made a mixture in the wheelbarrow of sifted coir ..read more

Tuesday, 9 April 2024 at home We had had some rain overnight and in the morning, which then stopped. Thus I had to abandon my plan to read all day. I returned to compost bin two, roughly sifting the lower portion, which I had left like this a couple of days ago…. ..and got to the bottom! I applied it to the area where I’d done the difficult weeding of pasture grass, horsetail, creeping buttercup and, at the back, an annoying running grass with fine roots (but not couch grass). When I started on it a few days back, it looked like this from the back, looking west: And now it looks like this ..read more

Monday, 8 April 2024 at home Faerie enjoys being a little bully to Zinc, pinning her down and making her cry, and when Faerie does this, she puffs up her normally skinny and unimpressive tail. After causing trouble, she slept the hours away. On this rainy day, I read an enjoyable memoir/how-to gardening book by a British gardener with whom I felt I had much in common, including gardening while experiencing physical difficulties. The Timberland Regional Library system has it. This is familiar to me: “I may have started managing my expectations, but still had a long way to go to manage my ima ..read more

Sunday, 7 April 2024 at home I had expected a day of reading weather after the night and morning of rain evidenced by the red rain gauge. Reading weather was not to be. I decided to plant one of the little trees or shrubs from Tony, a rather heavy one in a pot with no drainage. After I got it out to a spot by the deep swale, I became nervous that, because I was planted it on a tilt, I might fall in. I asked Allan for assistance in planting it. Skooter also joined in. (To the lower left is a clump of lesser celandine that Allan later pulled, because to reach it also involved leaning over the w ..read more

Saturday, 6 April 2024 at home We had rain. The predicted rain all day actually ended by early afternoon, which was fortuitous because we had two friends arrive to pick up the remaining give-away clumps of Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’. Allan had brought the wheelbarrows to the tarp for easy transport to our friends’ two vehicles. Artist Dorothy Danielson from across the river took some clumps and a couple weedy clumps of Siberian iris. She had just been to The Basket Case and bought some plants at the conclusion of helping a friend move into Golden Sands Assisted Living. I must remember to tell her the ..read more

Friday, 5 April 2024 at home Skooter enjoyed sunshine on the front porch. Next to the steps, on the wire of the front catio, here is what happens, or doesn’t happen, when you forget to cut back an early flowering clematis. It blooms WAY UP HIGH where you can’t see it well. What doesn’t happen is getting to enjoy the flowers close up. Looking up makes me dizzy! telephoto I picked a bouquet of narcissi, tulips, pulmonaria, kerria japonica, and Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’ for a local friend whose birthday is today… She appreciated when I told her that I’d read that narcissi make other flowers not ..read more

Thursday, 4 April 2024 at home Because we had plans to visit friends at their new home to advise about potential gardening, we decided to plant more sweet peas at Diane’s garden on the way. I picked some flowers to take for our visit. Down the East Willows Loop path, past the garden bed I am most focused on weeding… …Kerria japonica is coming into bloom and makes a good structure in a vase for holding up daffodils. It has green stems and early yellow single flowers. tree peony in budflower buds on bay tree The biggest show of my narcissus collection is going over…but I still had enough for a ..read more

Yacht Club Spring Opener ..read more