Not right now.

Here we are, at the most frozen, coldest dang day of the winter.  I should be using this time to keep moving, to ward off the chill, to sort, to downsize, laundry, cleaning…but I find myself napping on the couch, watching junk TV, occasionally rolling out from under the furry throw to eat something or refresh my coffee.

 

I have been thinking about spring.  This arctic blast has me in that mood.  I am thinking about plants, and colors.  I get out the journal and start writing down goals for landscaping 2019, write about rock and mulch and clearing brush.  Will those sweet little plants from last year survive this cold?  January and February are meant for thoughts like these..spring cleaning? Well, that’s for spring, and we aren't there yet. 

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Where did that month go?

I think I may have bought enough plants for this year.  May have…but there is still time to decide for sure.  I have about 5 pots of various perennials and a couple annuals that do not yet have a home, however,  rain somewhat delayed the planting progress for a time.  There is also still a large, very large, amount of landscaping prep to undertake before some of these items go in the ground, but, I am making headway. My sons-in-law helped tremendously on a flower bed over Memorial Day weekend which took a huge chunk off my "to do" list.  

When we remodeled (starting two years ago now), it disrupted all four sides of the house, and the foundation and any grass, shrubs, flowers, gravel, mulch…any of it…was destroyed in the process.  Now, I don’t mind “re-do” on these four areas but, boy, is my back tired!  I have spent the last several days digging out, dividing and replanting.  Some of my plants and shrubs, that weren’t destroyed, are pretty well established but no longer of the right size or in the right spot. 

I have also recently discovered, and this is a big one, that there are just not enough hours in the day.  I know I don’t move as fast as I use to, and it takes me longer to make a decision than it did when all my decisions had to be made on the fly…things came up so quickly.  Now, I get to ponder but, boy, that’s a time burner.  I find myself walking around, poking at the flower beds and wondering if I should move that azalea, but, it likes it there, but its too big, and there’s a good spot for something like that right over here…time burner. Even so, it’s been a gratifying few days.  Things are taking shape.  Rain slowed me down but it sped up the plants.  Things are green and growing, have had a power burst from the rain and I also discovered I am a master ponderer.   

 

Seeing lots of friends and family post on Facebook about their kids growth and moving on to their next grade level, their awards and recognition has been a lot of fun.  My grandkids among them.  My little guys have all had good years at school and pre-school/daycare.  They are happy and healthy and I am forever blessed.  I hope you are in a place where happiness can easily be seen and felt!  June is here, and it's going to be a great summer.  Get out! 

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Getting out in it.

I started on a bit of the landscaping needs around the house this week.  It is still cold, rainy (at least today) and windy, but gosh I needed to get out there.  For a couple different reasons, really.  One, it is driving me crazy to see all this dirt and two, my doctor advises more activity.  Nothing like moving a couple wheelbarrow loads of wood chips to be active.  Since its too early to bring in plants and flowers, I am concentrating on woodchips, and feeding azaleas. 

As you may remember, my pile of wood chips is from two summers ago, when we were first starting to plan the remodeling.  I asked the guys who were cutting down the trees if they could leave a little.  They said either they leave the whole load or none.  So, I had them dump the load from that last day.  Which, thankfully, was not ALL the wood chips from the job.  The wood chips have been used for two seasons, the huge pile is now pretty compacted and tough to shovel. Long live the pitchfork!  Why didn’t anyone tell me to use a pitchfork last year? The year before?  I moved woodchips to a couple places yesterday and although my back is paying for it today, the pitchfork was the right tool for the job. I will be out there moving woodchips later this week, if it stops raining.  I may even finish the walking trail.

It has remained cold where I am and the flowers are slow, but I remind myself it is only March.  I cleared some landscape areas I maybe should have left alone for a little while longer but, golly, I am anxious to see some color, some blooms.  I am struggling with furniture for the front door area…can’t decide what to put out there.  Everything I thought would work seems wrong.  I lost out on purchasing a chair a few weeks ago at the Habitat store that I think would have been just right.  But, not wishing to cry over spilled milk, I move on.  Remembering that chair has made all other chairs pale in comparison.  Yes, it’s that bad darn it!

I purchased two, tall, black, made from recycled materials, plastic pots for the porch at Target this week.  I am fond of these guys and can’t wait to load them up with some impatiens and coleus, sweet potato vine… be still my heart.  It means moving some other pots off the porch but goodness knows I have places for those, too. I remain determined in the moon garden and am keeping watch on the light patterns that hit that spot now, since a couple trees have fallen or been taken down.  I have been waiting on previous plantings to sprout so I can make a list of what might be staying and what will be replaced.  Last year I planted two bright, lime green hosta but I don't think they made it through the poor soil and rough winter.  We'll see, but those are two plants I expect to have to replace, among, of course, the white columbine, which I will probably abandon.  Love columbine but it just does not love me. Since I am revamping this area and beefing up the soil I plan on replacing a few plants, and introduce more pots of annuals.     

Coming up on Easter and usually daffodils adorn the table.  I am not sure that will happen this year but I did see the early snowdrops late last week, so I know the daffodils are coming! We will have family here, so much laughter and love will fill the house.  Weather forecasts indicate we will be inside…but, we’ll see.  We are hardy stock and are called to be outside.   

Oh, and just for fun, I came across this article and thought some of you might also enjoy...I hope to visit a couple of these spots soon!  http://www.midwestliving.com/travel/around-the-region/12-standout-midwest-garden-centers/




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I hurry, hurry to get things done...

"Autumn arrives in early morning, but spring at the close of a winter day."~Elizabeth Bowen

I am so ready for spring.  So ready.  Yesterday a sign as a flock of sandhill cranes flew over head with their unmistakable call.  I ran to the door, to step out onto the porch, looked up to see their formation overhead against a clear blue sky.  My heart sang. 

I look out the window now at a clear day…and oh so much brown and grey yet.  The landscaping this year is going to be a challenge, and a chore.  There is so much to do! I am excited by it and feeling slightly overwhelmed.  I did my usual January/February perusal of some gardening sites, made a list of plants, thought about pots and planters.  Walked around the yard to begin a list of the areas to concentrate…can I just put down “four sides of the house”?

We just returned from a short vacation, business related, to Jamaica.  To see bright colors, hear moving water…glorious.  Inspiring even and that may be why I am feeling it so much today…that itch to get outside and get started.  I hold myself back on these “Fooled ya!” early springlike days to keep from digging into the dirt but oh, I plan.

I hope to surround the house in color this year.  There will be loads of dirt and rock to contend with but also plants and flowers.  I am starting completely over in the moon garden area as the soil there needs a bit more help, and well, we’ve lost a couple trees over the winter which is going to change the sunlight and I hope will give me a couple more options for planting.  This area is really important to me, however, so its made its way back to number one, may two,  on my list. I’m also going to be using a “dry creek bed” design for one of the downspout areas and have, oh maybe 50 pictures saved on Pinterest.  Hubs keeps reminding me he has to drive the lawn tractor through this area so not to get carried away.

 

Late winter always brings yard clean-up as the first activity..sticks, sticks and more sticks. The deer have been active in our yard this winter and leave their proof everywhere.  Raking, burning and more sticks.  Hubs and I started the perusal of the yard, the listing of the many projects we still have yet to finish and even had to call in a downed tree on the power lines yesterday.  More wood to cut up.  On top of the more routine annual projects we still have the deck railing and stairs to build. 2018 is going to busy it seems!  But, yet, it was gentle and warm enough before the sun went down last evening for us to sit down by the lake, watch the full moon rise and look out to a single, playful loon.  Nice to slow it down, 2018. Nice. 

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Not rushing it, but I'm ready!

It’s doing it to me again, this late January thaw…I am itching to get out in my dirt, with shovel and hoe and plant matter.  This dull, grey weather and the brown that is peaking through the melting pristine snow makes me start to plan and, gulp, shop online.

I was super frustrated over the weekend over the lack of gardening shows that are broadcast these days.  What the heck? As one online article put it there’s a lot more “H” and little “G” in HGTV.  I loved the gardening shows of the past and hope to see the Do It Yourself network continue with Yard Crashers, which does still air episodes, thank goodness.  Limited, but, they are there on Saturday mornings. 

  

My Pinterest board is filled with gardening ideas.  This year, I will be able to spread some rock and more mulch since the interior of the house is substantially finished.  This year, the deck, porch and landscaping are the focus!  I have already spent hours scrolling through pins and posts, and jotted down ideas and color combinations.  I will admit to a slight obsession with pots and planters, and maybe already own more than I need..but a few more won't hurt. 

In the article I mention above, one point made is maybe people who garden spend more time outside and less in front of the TV, which is fair.  Maybe we do like to get outside and get our hands in the dirt and feet in the mud, and not in the living room watching another house flip show. (You can read the article here, but it was posted in 2017) Forgive me, but I do not want to see one more tiny house episode.  Not one.  As I said to my brothers, and mentioned in a previous post, I grew up in a mobile home…ya can put lipstick on a pig, but its still a pig, and those tiny homes?  We called ‘em trailers.  

I made my way out to the shed over the weekend to put two little Christmas trees from the porch away.  I have to come out here, I thought, and take inventory of what I might need for spring planting and there's definitely some clean up that needs to happen, evident from the tow rope hanging down from the ski tube stowed in the rafters. Yes, the list is long and growing.  While January might be a little too early to start thinking about plants, mulch, pots and planters, I can't help myself, especially on days of thaw.  I look forward to the green of spring, those little shoots of crocus and daffodils shoving their way through, assuring us once again, that these longer days aren't misguiding us, that spring really is just around the corner.  


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Getting on with it.

I've written a little about getting lost in Facebook, which I do far too often and succumbed to it this morning for more than a few minutes as I finished my cereal and drank coffee.  I like the leisure of it sometimes, you know? But, I have begun watching that little clock in the corner of my desktop screen so I don’t lose hours.  I have much to do today.

It’s a gorgeous day.  I spent a little time yesterday in the garden department at our local Lowe’s and purchased some half price shrubs, which I will get in the ground today.  I have so many places for shrubs that what I purchased won’t even make a dent, but, I must start somewhere and I have to start financially wise.  I wish I could afford a landscaper to come in and just do it all. I do have a bit more “disposable income” these days to make some landscaping purchases, unlike years ago, when raising kids and every extra penny went to gas up the car to drive them to an event or competition.  Those were great days, I wouldn’t change a thing, but I often wonder how we afforded to be on the go ALL the time, and eat at McDonalds more times than I should admit.

Anyway, back to landscaping.  I am beginning with a near blank slate.  As I’ve mentioned, three of the four sides of the house have been pretty disturbed by the recent renovation.  I have a new front porch, which is not quite finished, but is something I have never had.  So, there’s a story there…

In 2006 or so, husband and I began some major renovation to the house.  We replaced all the old plumbing pipes and fixtures, rewired, changed out all new trim and new oak doors inside the house, moved the laundry upstairs and added a pantry in the kitchen.  We took the space that had been the screen porch and turned it into a master bed and bath.  We opened up the roadside wall, created a foyer and installed a new, beautiful wood front door with side lights.  This construction took about 18 months or so, bringing us in to 2008 and the economy started its downward spiral. We had more plans, big plans. We put the brakes on building, and the beautiful front door opened to nothing.  After a few months we put up a temporary deck “landing” in order to be able to use that door, but, it was never quite a porch, and seldom used.

 

Fast forward through that really sucky period of bad economy (especially true for those in the lumber business, such as hubs.) and we were ready to pick up steam and finish some renovation.  Plans were scrapped, new plans were drawn up and that is where we are today.  I have a great new porch, posts (okay, they aren’t finished yet) and dirt that needs to be filled with great plants and shrubs.  The skirting isn’t around the deck, yet, and the lights need to be hung and electrified…but it’s almost a finished porch.

If you see me out and about I may look disheveled, sweaty and my fingers black and gross, but you’ll know why.  The projects are mounting up and the opportunity to tackle them lessens with each drifting leaf that flutters to the ground.  Fall is approaching and I have much to do. 

So, as I have done in the past, I do have a little product recommendation for you.  I will sometimes include a "plug" if I have tried something and love it - little knives, strainers, spatulas.  Could be anything.  Today, this is it.  

https://www.worx.com/20v-air-cordless-leaf-blower-wg545.html

This is my jam.  For cleaning the spider webs from around the door to blowing the little piles of gathering leaves and dirt from the welcome mat, "sweeping" the front steps and even blowing dirt and mulch off the walking stones in the moon garden, or blowing debris out that place between the windshield and hood of my car.  It's not too big and it is powerful enough to do those things I want done quickly, and soon, so I can manage myself.   I became super interested in this when my contractor buddy was using one to blow dirt and bugs out his work area, sawdust and junk off his tools...it's awesome.  

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