A garden's diary

3-2-18

The sun came up today and by 3:30pm it got warm enough for me to want to go outside and do some work in the garden.  But what a disappointment it was to find myself deprived of the necessary energy to carry out the work that must be done.  So much.  So much to do!

 3-5-18

And the sun came out, and it glowed long and hard warming up the earth, which sang a new song and my little heart was overjoyed and filled with that kind of joy it hadn’t felt in a very long while…

This time, I was able to accomplished a lot. I started working on that part of the garden I couldn’t handle the other day.  Stone by stone had to be removed first, so that I could then remove all that grass.  All that grass which was let to grow rampant where it should have not.  And it had to be removed by the thwack of a small hoe and by hand.

I also removed every iris bulb growing there… those old irises I had planted many years ago, one or two, but now they have multiplied abundantly, and are already showing happy little green heads.

I will have to level out the soil in that space, and add more soil too, because it is now looking like a little grave of sorts, and the stones will have to be placed on another part of the garden too, or perhaps I should rebuild what I had there originally in a poor attempt to create a little pond?  

Today, I was also able to clean another corner of the garden.  I removed two dead shrubs.  One rose that had become wild and flowerless, and another one with thick, huge roots that I wasn't able to completely remove.  The roots had to be cut under the soil, but they're still there.

The fence will have to be restained.  This time in a much darker tint, and after a fresh layer of soil, mulch and new perennials, this corner will be magically transformed!  Oh I know!

03-06-18

Amazing how one day can considerably change from one to another… and the wind of the NW.  Bitter and hateful to my heart.  Nevertheless, I bundled up and went to work the gardens. 

The little ‘make believe’ pond part of the garden I made years ago is now cleaned and stones have been put along the fence as a barricade to protect the space from unwanted grass coming from the other side.  The sod had been removed and all trash collected.  Now that the job is done, it is almost hard to believe how bad it had looked, and how much I feared working that part of the garden.  I knew it was going to be a torture of a job… all the stones needing be removed and all irises dogged out and then… that awful grass.  But now it is all done.  And clean.  And the space ready to be embellished!

Now, it’ll be the weed killer along the fence and putting all those stones back again in pretense of a little pond, and... plant plant plant around it! 

  

I have so many iris bulbs to plant a whole garden, so I will be replanting some in between the stones again.  

The others, will be planted in memory of my mother along the little dried creek she and I build.  I’m thinking that I will also want to add some other type of flowers there, as the irises last for such short time.  But what?

My friend Christina is dividing her huge hostas this weekend she said, and I will be getting part of that bounty.  Perhaps, I should plant those hostas along the irises, in that little sanctuary in the garden?

After I was done working in my ‘pretense-pond’, I removed more unwanted grasses from other parts of the garden as well and raked everything.  Everything.  Since I don’t have a place where to discard debris and such from the garden as I used to back at the little white cottage, everything needs to be put in trash bags and/or trash bins.  And thus, the huge trash bin is so heavy, I almost couldn’t move it.  I hope it won’t present a problem for the trash collector people, next week.

There was a type of a grass I planted everywhere in the garden years ago that I never liked, but I used to be very sensitive about removing and trashing things from the garden… they were something sacred, or something like that to me.  But I have learned.  And now I won’t think it twice if something ever need be removed or thrown away.  Life if too short to keep plants that are not doing so good or that you just simply dislike.

The garden is so emptied and flowerless, and yet, the ground is brimming with potential!  And what's more important, it is already looking so much nicer!!

 My little creature friends are as excited as I am to see this place overflowing in flowers again!

  

 It is like a new canvas… a new painting taking shape!

Soon, soon little ones!