Although I have put some time in cleanup around the garden of late, today was the first day I really put in more than an hour at one go and it looked like there was a discernible difference.
So far, the only dandelions out on the front yard were in between the cracks of the broken pre-cast stairs. Those came out fairly easy, due to the sand substrate beneath the stairs. At the same time, l took out other weedy bits in the cracks. I don’t know when we’ll get to breaking the stairs up as we move forward with the front yard regrade, so might as well make it look as nice as possible for now.
There were a few saplings to be pulled up front as well, and one I finally gave up trying to pull out because it had cleverly hidden its deepest root bit under the front sidewalk. I’ll get back to that one soon, and finish what I started. There were still some old grasses and stalks from the flowers I made a dent in, those should be getting moved a bit forward soon.
I also started marking off where I’ll be digging later this week to start the regrade overall out there. I’m going to begin that project with the area along the driveway, so once we get rid of the centered walkway and stairs, there will already be a new way to get up the slope.
The unfortunate bordering Japanese barberry (as seen in many Office Window Views) has been using the rock wall to hide its progeny that have started making themselves known this year. I managed to pull one out completely, as it was a bit removed from the wall itself. Another, unfortunately, the main trunk is seated deep into a crevice between rocks, and I could only cut it back for now. I also trimmed quite a bit off the main shrub, and will go back deeper later when I have more time. The sun was already sinking by the time I had filled two leaf bags with bits from all of them. The work was prickly not just from the shrub, but also all the new black raspberry canes and twining boysenberries along the rock wall as well.
Earlier, I had also set markers for where the new path through the back yard will go. We’ll need to move the wooden doors that have been leaning against the garage so I can get at clearing the beds where we hope to plant tomatoes and peppers this year against the wall in the hope that the thermal mass of the brick will help keep them nice and warm. The forming of the path should happen before the end of the month because there are some plants (iris in particular) that need to be transplanted elsewhere, but that will likely be delayed until we get more of the kitchen garden started.
I did place the three starters we picked up two days ago in the beds I will plant them in at some point this week: basil, rosemary, and parsley. This is a different variant of rosemary this year, so we’ll see how that does.
All the beds from last year need weeding and dressing with compost. We’re still trying to decide if we’ll use some of the windows and maybe the cloche to try to add warmth to push things along. Last year…we started too early. This year…hopefully it’s not too late!
The one thing I need to do tomorrow is get out at least one barrel. We still have water leftover from last year’s end empty, but that won’t last long as we start to plant in earnest.
Didn’t quite hit 70 today, and mostly sunny. Yet it was already cooling when I set in this afternoon with the cleanup. As soon as I went inside near to 7pm, first thing I did after getting my boots and gloves off was put on the kettle.
We’ll see what tomorrow holds, but I do plan on planting at least one something or other both front and back. I think one per day is a good plan for now. Glads in the front and marvel peas in the back, I think. Time will tell.
