A Saturday in early spring brings hard work.
Today we dragged up all of the deck furniture from the garage; raked the worst of the vole runs and beaten spots; swept and sprayed out the salt from the garage; cleaned up the incredible mess around the mailbox; raked the areas beaten down with "chips" that the town used when they ran out of salt this winter; cut back the barberry bushes so they will look good against the blue-grey siding; cleaned up the edges of some of the close-in gardens; picked up most of the willow branches on the lawn; and then, when we thought we were nearly dead, we worked two hours and drained and cleaned the old pond to get it ready for the fish and the water lily.
All that after the weekly shopping trip that took til around noon. And around 2, Bill decided he should get more propane so we could roast a chicken for dinner. So when the pond was done (including some digging and resetting of the stones that were nearly falling in in a variety of places), we finally stopped and had a couple of margaritas on the deck as the day wound down.
There are many clumps of crocuses blooming around the yard even though the voles have had a winter feast. The magnolia buds are really swelling now, I expect to make it the plant of the week soon. Lots of tulip clumps that I completely forgot that I planted are springing up now.
The winter rodents really cut down the japanese iris on the first berm. Nothing has ever set them back before, so I will be interested to see how they fare after being chewed to the ground under the snow. I have little fear of losing all of them. The voles didn't touch the peony there at all. Looking forward to a nice june bloom from that.
Couldn't find any beginnings yet of the wildflowers along the creek. The exotics do come up earlier than the natives it seems. The plants that belong here know enough not to show their sprouts this early. Nothing from the coneflowers, the joe-pye weed, the butterfly weed, or milkweeds yet. Even the New England Aster next to the house is still just barely showing new growth.
For what its worth, the globe arbor vitae that was so beaten down with snow that I recorded it in this blog awhile ago is now almost normal. When I look at it I can tell that it was stretched and bent, but it has sprung back. I hope that will hold true for the Mugo pines in the front yard that are still under the last snowpiles.
Today we dragged up all of the deck furniture from the garage; raked the worst of the vole runs and beaten spots; swept and sprayed out the salt from the garage; cleaned up the incredible mess around the mailbox; raked the areas beaten down with "chips" that the town used when they ran out of salt this winter; cut back the barberry bushes so they will look good against the blue-grey siding; cleaned up the edges of some of the close-in gardens; picked up most of the willow branches on the lawn; and then, when we thought we were nearly dead, we worked two hours and drained and cleaned the old pond to get it ready for the fish and the water lily.
All that after the weekly shopping trip that took til around noon. And around 2, Bill decided he should get more propane so we could roast a chicken for dinner. So when the pond was done (including some digging and resetting of the stones that were nearly falling in in a variety of places), we finally stopped and had a couple of margaritas on the deck as the day wound down.
There are many clumps of crocuses blooming around the yard even though the voles have had a winter feast. The magnolia buds are really swelling now, I expect to make it the plant of the week soon. Lots of tulip clumps that I completely forgot that I planted are springing up now.
The winter rodents really cut down the japanese iris on the first berm. Nothing has ever set them back before, so I will be interested to see how they fare after being chewed to the ground under the snow. I have little fear of losing all of them. The voles didn't touch the peony there at all. Looking forward to a nice june bloom from that.
Couldn't find any beginnings yet of the wildflowers along the creek. The exotics do come up earlier than the natives it seems. The plants that belong here know enough not to show their sprouts this early. Nothing from the coneflowers, the joe-pye weed, the butterfly weed, or milkweeds yet. Even the New England Aster next to the house is still just barely showing new growth.
For what its worth, the globe arbor vitae that was so beaten down with snow that I recorded it in this blog awhile ago is now almost normal. When I look at it I can tell that it was stretched and bent, but it has sprung back. I hope that will hold true for the Mugo pines in the front yard that are still under the last snowpiles.
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