Thwarted plans

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Sandi

I had such big plans. Well, ok, not big.  But firmly cemented in my mind.

I have such a huge list of garden chores to be completed in the next two weeks, that I figured I’d better not wait to start until the weekend. I decided that, if I would just spend even a half-hour in the yard every evening when I get home from work, it would go a long way toward accomplishing my goals.

So, on Tuesday, I got home from work, resolutely ignored the bottle of wine sitting on the kitchen counter, and went upstairs to change into my “work” clothes.

Still feeling very determined, I went outside, put on my gardening tool belt and gloves, and started looking for yard-waste bags.

And realized that the amazingly high winds that had been going on ALL DAY were, in fact, still going.

Ok, this photo isn’t really from my yard on Tuesday (perhaps the palm tree tipped you off), but you get the general impression.  I was so focused on my chore list that it sort of slipped my mind that it’s physically impossible for one person with only two hands to clip off garden refuse and put it into a yard-waste bag in 40-mile-per-hour winds.

So I went back inside and opened up that bottle of wine.

So far it’s pretty calm today. . . maybe tonight. :)

 

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Jumping the gun

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Sandi

I couldn’t help it.

I know it’s way too early to plant. And I don’t plan on planting anytime soon. The snow just finished melting about a week ago, for Pete’s sake.

But I was at a happy hour gathering of my coworkers last Tuesday, celebrating the successful completion of another academic year (whatever excuse we need to go to happy hour, right?), and as I was leaving the building to go to my car, I happened to notice a greenhouse set up in the parking lot.

I couldn’t resist. I just had to check it out. Just to see what they had (I told myself).

Well, they had such beautiful and unusual varieties of Calibrachoa (more commonly known as Million Bells), that I ended up dropping about $75 on flowers that night.

Aren’t they just gorgeous?  I know they’ll probably sit in these boxes by my garage for at least a week or two yet, and I could just as well have left them to sit at the greenhouse and gone out to buy them later.

But look at them! I just couldn’t resist.  That yellow and white one is a new one to me, and isn’t that dark purplish/black centered one with the bright pink edges just gorgeous?

I look at it this way: if I spread out my purchases over many greenhouses and many weeks, it will seem like I’m spending less.  Right? ;)

—

Also, a big happy-birthday-shout-out to my big sis Sheri, my most faithful reader. (And a good sister, too, in addition to that.) ;)

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Lake chores

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Sandi

We had a successful couple of days at the lake taking care of some chores there.

We left for the lake on Friday shortly after noon and came back to town after supper on Saturday because we had a full day of church and family visiting yesterday.

But we got lots of stuff done.  Mowing, burning leaves, house cleaning, taking down trees (just a few), and planting the vegetable garden.

It was good to get it all done, but, wow, was it cold on Saturday.  We had waited until Saturday to plant the vegetables because it was supposed to be warmer, we thought.  But we hadn’t planned on the gale-force winds blowing in off the lake, which still had ice on it.

It was COLD. But we got it done. Which feels great.  I hope the veggies aren’t too put out by the cooler weather.

This is what the lake looked like on Saturday afternoon, after some of the ice had melted.

It’s the first time Trevor and I have been there early enough to see ice still on the lake, ever. So it was interesting. But the ice melted a lot during the day Saturday (I suppose the wind helped somewhat with that), so it’s probably completely gone at this point.  Although I certainly wouldn’t want to swim in that water for a while. :)

Now the next week or so I’ve got a HUGE list of things to get done in my gardens.  I’ve scheduled a few “garden party” type things for the first week or so of June and am starting to feel a bit panicked, since I’ve not gotten anything accomplished at home yet.

So I’m hoping I can keep my motivation high for the next couple of weeks and get a start on my chore list before Memorial weekend, when we’ll be going back to the lake to get the boat and the dock in. And it would be great to have some warmer weather to be getting things done in, too! :)

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Iris and Scilla

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Sandi

One more flower is adding to the beauty in the front garden; it’s only been a week or so since the first bloom but more are coming almost every day.

This is another of the gorgeous, tiny Iris reticulata–this one cobalt blue instead of purple or yellow–together with some beautiful blue Scilla.

I love this combination–the blues tend to be my favorites in the garden.  That is, until I see pink, or red, or yellow. . . truly, I love them all.  You can’t really go wrong with flower color, I think.  It’s like making a flower bouquet–even if you are completely untalented at that kind of thing (which I am), it’s difficult to make flowers look bad.

We’re off to the lake for a work-weekend.  Next weekend I think we’ll have a long, long list of things to accomplish at home! :)

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The blooms continue

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Sandi

The blooming continues! Still not much, but I’m seeing little changes every day.

Yesterday was amazing–I got home from work about 5:00 and just sat out on the patio in the sun and read a book for about an hour.  It was magic! :)

I did notice that the little bud I posted a photo of on Monday was blooming, and it is not a crocus (really, I should have known better).  It’s another Iris reticulata–a pretty yellow one.

And the crocus in the back yard are SO close to blooming. . . another few hours, probably, will do it.

This winter seemed so long (because it was)–this warm weather just feels incredible. I can’t wait to have some uninterrupted gardening time.  Although it’s still too wet, so it’s probably not a bad thing that I don’t have time for it yet. But the sun is so warm that the soil is heating up quickly.

Here’s to May in all its glory! :)

 

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Second bloom

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Sandi

I’m still waiting for more blooms in my yard. . . we were out of town for the weekend and I was hoping to come back to a few new flowers.  But, apparently the weather here wasn’t any better than the weather where we were (it was snowing and raining and cold), so no luck.

But I did spy this little beauty coming up by the front steps, and it looks like it’s ready to burst into bloom any moment now.

We got home mid-afternoon yesterday and spent the next couple of hours going through the shed, finding old pots to get rid of and put out on the curb for cleanup week–we have a pretty nice little pile of stuff at this point.  (Our garbage day is today, so we sort of had to get it done yesterday.)

Then we spent some time going around the yard just picking up garbage that was scattered everywhere after the snow melted.  When you live sort of on the edge of town in a really windy city, you end up with a lot of random garbage everywhere.  But it’s amazing how much better it looks just to get all the garbage picked up!

The garden cleanup has yet to begin, and we’re going to the lake for some chores this coming weekend, so I think our yard is going to have wait at least another two weeks.  But I’m sure all of our garden cleanup chores will still be there waiting for us. :)

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First bloom

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Sandi

It finally happened–the first bloom in my yard. (Other than the pansies I planted in pots on Sunday.)

Iris reticulata

It’s one of my tiny little Iris reticulatas–I have quite a few, but this is the only one that’s been brave enough to show it’s little face so far. I’ve got the same one in a beautiful cobalt-sort of color and also in a bright yellow. (And, yes, in the background of that photo is all the other iris foliage that I neglected to clean up last fall. Thanks for bringing that up.)

This one is in the garden bed right in front of the house, so it’s probably the bed that’s been uncovered (from snow) the longest at this point.  But it’s on the west side of the house, and some of my little irises are on the south side–I’m surprised they’re not blooming yet.

I was noticing that, when I started this blog two years ago, right around the beginning of April, I already had some crocus blooming.  Here it’s a full month later and not a sign of them yet.

We had temps into the low 20s last night and my little pansies were drooped over the sides of their containers–I hope they bounce back once they warm up a bit!

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Rubber shoes

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Sandi

I got a great birthday present from my sister this year–rubber shoes!

I always have that problem in the spring–it’s so wet outside, what shoes do I wear to traipse back and forth from the shed to the garden to the house to the shed to the garden. . . I do have “gardening shoes,” which are an old pair of tennis shoes, but they are not waterproof so it can get uncomfortable pretty quickly if it’s really wet out.

So this weekend, as I was getting ready to go outside and trying to decide what shoes to wear (these are the tough decisions in my life), I suddenly remembered my new rubber shoes that were sitting by the back door.

So I just slipped them on, didn’t even bother with socks.

They were PERFECT!  Comfortable, able to slip on and off without any tying, and completely waterproof.

Maybe I’m easily amused but I thought they were awesome. :) I think will be getting a lot of use out of them this summer.

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A burst of optimism

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Sandi

I think it got past 70 degrees here on Saturday–I’m not totally sure because we didn’t watch the weather that night or anything.  But was it ever gorgeous on Saturday!  Breezy, but sunny and warm and it just felt so good!

We went up the greenhouse in Ada to buy tomato plants (I know, it’s early, but we had the time) and discovered that they didn’t actually have any plants yet. :)

So we stopped at a big-box store on the way home and bought pansies. It’s actually later than I typically pot up pansies, but at this point I feel like it might be quite a while before I’ll be planting or potting much else.

So I planted our front window boxes and a big blue pot that we’d bought while we were in Ada.

They just look so cheery–the only color as far as the eye can see.  Everything is drab and brown and dirty looking, now that the snow has melted. But we’ve got a bit of color in our yard, which makes me very happy.

It’s cool again this morning–32 degrees, my computer says–but it’s supposed to warm up again by the end of the week. I know from past experience that, if you’ve got your pansies on the West side of the house (which I do), they can take night temps down below 20 degrees.

So here’s to hoping that my pansies do well–the lowest forecast for the nights this week is about 30, and I’m hoping that it’s going to improve soon. :)

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An abundance of basil

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Sandi

Notice how I did NOT say an overabundance of basil? :)   In my opinion, you can never have too much.

Trevor was a bit surprised when I came home with a(nother) basil plant from the grocery store the other day. I said, hey, it’s “columnar basil,” which is a different variety from the basil I bought, rooted, and potted.  Which is the same one as the handful of leaves in the glass of water.

And then there are the seven different kinds we’ve started from seed. . . six of those are for the U of M seed trials and one is just because a friend gave me a packet of basil seeds, and I thought, hey, why not? I’m already starting basil anyway.

So, in addition to the two no-longer-flowering Easter lilies we’ve got on the kitchen table, we also have a glass of water with basil in it, a tray of basil seedlings, and two pots of basil.

I’m going to have find a few more good recipes that use basil. :)

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