and it has begun. welcome to the season of landscaping and heavy gardening! day 2 and i already feel like i’ve been at it for a thousand years. and that i could do it everyday for the rest of my life and there would still be things to do.
bramble eradication: snowdrop patch. naturally, i went back for round 2 of bramble eradication, this time in the snowdrop patch. which is absolutely insane of me, i might add, after coming out of yesterday sore and tired and it’s the largest task on the list i left on the last post. well, i figured i’d just go see if they would pop up as easily as the other patch did and of course they didn’t so of course i just went at it anyway because why not? still got about 50% of the root balls up and cut the rest way down to the quick and raked and raked and raked so everything was clear.
if i can keep the brambles at bay, i actually have a vision for this area now! i still want the arbor vitae out of there (i think!), which will leave the two honeysuckles. the opening between those two shrubs creates a perfect path right through the daylilies and the start of the comfrey field, punctuated by the snowbells, orpine, and bluebells. it would be nice to disperse the daylilies to fill the area and still allow the feral columbines to grow under the pink honeysuckle. what to do about the wretched goutweed? i don’t know, but first goal is to keep the brambles out of there and get dad to help me cut it back even further, as extra buffer.
raking out the yellow flag irises. couldn’t find the marsh marigold i planted there last year although i’m pretty optimistic it’ll come back -- there couldn’t be a more perfect spot OR a more perfect plant pairing than where it is right now.
tidying the “new” garden by the telephone pole. as i stabbed at the wet earth with my trowel and scrapped my fingernails against rock and grit, i thought ‘this really is a lost cause of a garden, and yet, here i am anyway, spending an hour weeding it with my bare hands.’ cool. in fear of disturbing the blue eyed grass, i didn’t make it into the center of the bed, but i did cut in under the rocks and pulled out tons of wee dandelions, yellow dock, creeping charlie, money plant, and grass, all of which probably just laughed at me like ~nice try!~ and immediately sent runners and germinated seed to fill the space. and of course i remembered right in the nick of time to try and not disturb the pink yarrow that also grows feral in that area because that’s a nice way to fill in the space if i can not accidentally weed it!
raking out the lily-of-the-valley: and desperately seeking the anemone, but finding none. according to last year, it popped up end of april, which in this ~a month early timeline~ could be any day now. i really hope it comes back. i forget that daffodils grow over there too, which means i have to stake and move them, but as usual, the question is ~to where????~ the newly cleared snowdrop patch might be ideal, but i’m not positive i can keep that up to snuff.
a solid, backbreaking day, spent mostly clearing blackberry canes again: and deeply satisfying to liberate my precious snowdrops and get a vision for the area. a couple of blooms got damaged in the process, but i’m hoping it’s all be for the betterment of the patch moving forward.
otherwise: there were a LOT more daffodil shoots popping up in all the right and some of the wrong places, reminding me that i really really want to get a handle on all those groupings tucked in hard to reach and hard to manage places. and the daylilies are getting nibbled on, which means there is a deer nearby. i hope he or she leaves some for me.
i’m DEFINITELY worse for wear today. my poor back is not feeling nice -- a lingering side effect from my late winter ill health. i’m hoping a combination of strengthening it, feeling better on the whole, taking turmeric, and otherwise soldiering on will clear this shit up asap because i have a lot of stuff to do!
more early season tasks: GROVE
- cut back those suddenly huge trees growing in the butterbur patch (bc i forgot to do that today)
- tend to the lupine patch
- stake snowdrops AND daffodils
- weed and edge ceremony garden
- weed asparagus patch
more early season tasks: WOODS
- finish tidying the back side yard?? how much further is necessary?
- do i need to do anything about the slope beyond the hot tub?
- cut the ash by the stone wall alllllll the way back
first day of hard landscaping -- so early this year! yesterday, jason said “spring’s come so late!” and i almost did a spit take. dude, it’s a crazy early spring for 2022, way earlier than last year and even last year was pretty early. thanks, global warming. i did a little comparison with this year and last year’s butterbur in the same stage of growth and this year they are a WHOLE MONTH EARLY!
A MONTH! but at least that gives me an extra month in the dirt. i have already taken two token swings at a few little spots where i felt the inspiration -- the feverfew stalks that i never cleaned up before winter is plucked down to a tidy state and the “new” garden by the electrical pole got some grass removed (but i’m always so nervous to disrupt the blue eyed grass i transplanted there that nothing ever really gets done. i should really stake it or transplant it again so that bed doesn’t become more of a lost cause than it already is!)
today i tackled the feral blackberries on the way to the river. another one of last year’s tasks ~i never got around to~ before the snow flew. generally, the task in the bramble patch is to cut back the spent flowering canes and any canes that got bent and broken by the snow pack. last year’s first year canes become this year’s berry producers and leaving the spent canes in the patch makes it harder to maintain and keep looking neat. i also needed to clean up the devil weed that i stupidly let go to seed due to my laziness (dang, i really need to figure out what that blasted weed is called).
so off i went into the prickers, fully suited up -- two pairs of pants, sweatshirt and jacket, hat plus all the hoods up, and gloves, of course -- with my clippers in hand when something strange happened! the normally rugged, well-rooted blackberries that i wrestle with every year just started to easily come out of the ground! 85% of the plants i tugged at popped right up with their enormous, gnarly root systems attached. that kinda got me jazzed so i ended up pulling out both patches on either side of the path.
not exactly the plan, but not exactly a bad thing either. i won’t get any blackberries there this year, and worse, no flowers, both super whimsical characteristics of the “path down to the river”, in my opinion, but it’ll really give me a chance to reset that area which is particularly important this year so i can stay on top of devil weed germination. and it’s not like i came anywhere near to eradicating the whole patch, brambles being what they are, so there will still be on track for fruit next year, if i want.
i don’t actually know what i want there. i mean, i do know -- coltsfoot and ferns surrounding the lilac bush on one side and a small, whimsical patch of berries on the other -- but that area has always been such a hellscape of brambles and goldenrod and avens it’s just hard to stay on top of once the beautiful ferns pop up and i’m loath to disturb the area.
i gave the area a solid rake after, trying not to feel bad about all the insects still overwintering in the litter, and it’s looking pretty nice. the lilac is ENORMOUS this year! i’m so happy i invested in it four (maybe five?!) years ago. i remember it was kinda pricey but i was so sick of being in lilac poverty when the season hit and having to smell ~other people’s~ lilacs that i just couldn’t resist, immediately feeling kinda bad about the splurge when i planted it among the brambles i struggle to keep up with. but it took to that spot like a champion and is over my head now! and adds a nice little touch to the path and rocks whether or not i’m on top of maintaining the area. plus blooms, of course, lots of blooms.
(that’s the same with the forsythia too! my parents have huge forsythia bushes, so to me it’s not spring without them, and the little plant i bought (around the same time, i think?) has REALLY outdone itself. it’s gigantic, has beautiful yellow bark, and makes that part of the side yard where i put it look more intentional with it’s dramatic, weeping branches. it clearly loves where it is and i cannot wait to sit in the hot tub while it’s in bloom and admire it. 10/10 plant.)
meanwhile, two tiny crocuses are up in the yard (those bulbs did not thrive since i planted them eight years ago, but some still persist), earlier than the newly planted ones at the grove. i almost had a panic attack looking for signs of them, on my hands and knees scouring the area until i finally saw ten or so tiny, tiny bundles of their succulent green leaves poking up. snowbells, pussy willow, and butterbur are up and the salamanders are rustling around between the receding ice on the pond and the shore.
of course, once i rip the bandaid off and start the season, the jobs and tasks just start and don’t stop til winter. it’s intimidating and probably why i waited a luxurious three days from when the rain and cold and frozen ground let up before i went at it for the first time. already, the tasks just flood into my mind, each competing for priority and pleasure.
here’s what’s on deck for early, early spring season clean up:
- rake out the yellow flag irises by the pond
- cut back those suddenly huge trees growing in the butterbur patch (like where did those come from!)
- finish tidying the back side yard?? how much further is necessary?
- do i need to do anything about the slope beyond the hot tub?
- cut the ash by the stone wall alllllll the way back
- might as well tackle the brambles growing in the snowdrops while i’m in bramble eradication mode
- tidy the “new” garden by the electrical pole
- rake out the lily of the valley
- stake the snowdrops so i don’t forget to separate the bulbs in early summer!!
oh my.
and that’s just tasks i want to get done before things start growing in earnest. thankfully, it felt every bit as good as i hoped it would. it was just as hard, just as dirty, just as interminable, just as fun, and just as rewarding as i remembered it would be.
my body is already worried about the monumental season in store! naturally, when i said those blackberry roots just “popped” right out of the ground, they still needed some solid pulling and grabbing and torquing and tearing, and they put up as good a fight as they normally do, scratching up my nose and impaling me with plenty of thorns for my troubles. by the end of the two plus hours i spent going to town on those canes, my hands were tired of gripping, my knees were screaming, my face was bloody, and i was drenched with sweat. an absolutely splendid way to spend the first landscaping day of the year!
why cant I just be a cute little forest faerie and spend my mornings in misty forests and be friends with all the woodland creatures and climb trees and swim in natural pools and explore and be happy
Let’s promote plant species literacy. The entire “grass” has many species. Especially in areas like this one where it’s sort of kept but not really (behind a strip mall.)
In this small parkway, and surrounding area, we have the follow:
ellievsbear
2087
prguitarman
theartofmadeline
tangentwithtanner
gracieabrams
origamiaround
