We both kept ourselves busy with gardening tasks today. We went up north this morning, looking for breakfast and grow bulbs. Breakfast was good, but neither Walmart, K-Mart, nor the pet store in Claremont had a single grow bulb for our shop light fixtures. We should have stocked up better when we saw them all winter, because now everyone wants them, and we are in serious need of them.
I planted another twelve boxes, bring me to 48. We went outside and measured the deck, and I do need 70 of them. I want to leave some for veggies up on the upper balcony, but probably no more than ten, so I at least need a dozen more. I’m getting tired of doing them. I’m starting to get low on many of the plants as well, but there are enough for all of them, I think.
It’s amazingly hard work to load them all of though. Plus, before I get started, I pull each shelf full of boxes to the ground and water them all, then put them all back up. So my arms are sore before I even begin! Oh well. I’m getting close to the end now. If I get them done in the next couple of days before I have to head out of town again, I won’t lose any plugs this year, which will be a first!
We walked around quite a bit outside as well, and even Ms. Prissy Princess-kitty joined us. It’s all really soggy, so though as much as I can see how much work I’ll have to get it all cleaned up, it’s really too early to start. There’s a lot of dead foliage, though, because I just didn’t get a chance to clean it up well in the fall with the early snow and our surgeries.
All sorts of things are starting to sprout. We can see the species tulips that we put in last fall are coming up all over the place. The daffs that we already had are all doing really well, and seem completely unharmed by the last foot of late snow.
The only things actually blooming right now are the crocus, but they look great. I think the compost that we spread around last fall has darkened the soil quite a bit, so they show much better. Last year, the mulch that they were coming through was quite a pale gray, and you could hardly see the white and pale purple crocus, because there wasn’t enough of a contrast. Not a problem this year, though. Compost is good stuff.
We walked out with the hundred-foot tape measure so that I could get an idea about where I want the veggie garden. Frank measured out sixty feet down the driveway from the opening in the stone wall, but I decided that it wasn’t long enough, and sent him down another twenty feet. Eighty feet looked about right.
One of the first things we need this spring in a new compost bin, so he’s going to build it at a right angle to the stone wall, thereby ending where that vegetable garden will be. The raised beds and the shed will go up in due time, but the compost bin is non-negotiable. The ones we built in 2001 are all full, and we have a pile next to the bins that looks horrible.
I poked around a bit in the flower beds, looking to see what was coming up. We were happy to see two little poppies. The compost last fall clearly helped them. The soil they are in is awful, and we are improving as quickly as we can.
One of the weird things is the bed where the foxglove was last year. There are now about a thousand little seedlings in that same spot. What the heck am I going to do with all of those? They were pretty, yes. But so many! And to think I have some started from seed down in the basement right now. Oops. I wonder how many I can give away?
This was the cats first time out in the garden this year. Well, Marmy and Princess, anyway. They really enjoyed being out there with us. It was very fun, except for the time Princess had to walk through the puddles. She glared at me as if it was my fault! Yoda is enjoying the upper balcony. That’s not as scary as the great big garden, afterall.
The pond looks so sad without the fishies. We are really missing them, and trying to figure out how we’re going to clean it out. There are tons of leaves in it, and still one dead fish. We really need a pond vacuum that works.