Update for March - week 3

I took a break from pouring over last years garden journal and jumped into my herb bed. This bed is in transition, oh who am I kidding, every bed is in transition. Anyway,  the bed was in dire need of pruning so that's what I set out to and did it. Most of it anyway.

Daylily Stella de Oro and Chives

Monarda Blue Stockings aka Bee Balm

Mugo Pine 'Slowmound'

Oregano - a plant that keeps on giving

Thyme - another plant that wont quit

Looking much better after the chop job, still more to go

and what's Spring without a few surprises? I have no idea what this is

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Collector of Ideas and Frustration

Each year, during the garden-dormant season of winter, I go through the previous years garden journal - the hand written one - and I am always struck by how plans for my garden beds change just over the course of that year. And then I make an 'inspection tour' through the real-life garden and take note of how it is very different from what I had planned seven years ago.



I'm what might be labeled an 'idea hoarder'. Whether the ideas collected are in the form of hand-written notes or photos found on the internet and safely tucked into an appropriately named file folder, I am becoming over-whelmed with the seemingly insurmountable task of choosing and using one or more favorites.


I am quite sure I am not alone in this collector phenomena, but knowing I am not alone doesn't make the task any easier.


As the garden awakens each year and the fever to put new plans into place takes hold of me,my old nemesis is always there to greet me. This enemy is so persistent and onery that I almost want to give up. I'm talking about grass.


Grass creeps into my beds, some worse than others, but in every bed, save for the one that is surrounded by the house, a concrete driveway, a concrete sidewalk and a concrete porch, grass taunts me to no end.


All of these grass-ridden beds were started with the method of laying down multiple layers of wet newspaper, a layer of wet cardboard and a 2-3" layer of mulch. One would think that such a widely accepted means of starting a new bed would work for more than a a few years. I have edged the beds with that long ribbon of black edging six inches into the ground and buried a log on the outside of that. I still get grass in the beds.

So, once again, I am faced with having to dig up plants, separate the grass from them, replant them, and hope they can be enjoyed without sharing their space with grass.


My task list this week is laying wet newspaper down on the larger areas, covering the areas with cardboard, wetting it all down and covering it all with mulch.


As frustrated as I sound I know I'm not going to give up but I have to wonder yet again "when is gardening going to be more joy than work?"

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Things to do today (or next couple of days)

The outside temp has been very favorable for working in the garden these past few days. I see people around the neighborhood out walking again as well as doing yard work. The weather service tells us this will change for this weekend. Temps will dip back into the 40’s and the storm that is currently dumping snow on Washington state and Oregon will bring its ‘gifts’ to us.

The list of things I need to do to get this garden up and running is the usual spring list but with a few additions. Last Autumn I laid out water line to carry water to two spigots at the back end of the yard so I don’t have to drag my hoses out that far every watering day. I was either getting tired or lazy and did not bury the line in the ground but instead opted to cover it with mulch for over winter. Well, that didn’t work out very well because several sections split and need to be replaced. I had only run water through them once to check for leaks but the line must not have emptied well enough. So, another thing to add to my list is to make sure the line is angled so that it will drain more completely.

Chores for the next few days are:

• rake the front lawn of Catalpa tree seed pods. I will store them near the compost pile for when I bring the lawn mower out and then chop them all up to use as mulch.
• Fill the newest planting bed from the compost pile
• Plant peas in B9
• Move the Aster Snowdrift from F1 to B1. It spread out much further than I was told it would, so it needs more space plus I will no longer hear my wife complaining about it taking over our front walkway.
• Do something about the grass encroaching into B3 from the neighbors yard. I’m thinking I will dig a trench along the chain link fence and bury boards deep enough to block the roots (expected success is iffy at best) and cover the area with wet newspaper and cardboard as if I’m starting over. I do so much hate having to repeat what was already done, but grass is forever persistent.
• Spread manure over the vegetable beds so that it mellows before planting out in a month or so.

I seriously doubt I will get all of this done before the coming rains and possible snow, but it sure feels good to get back out into the garden.

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Ok, I'm ready for Spring

The Crocus and hyacinth are ready. The Roses are sending out new leaves, therefore its time for pruning them, even though the Forsythia has begun sending out its yellow leaves.

Crocus 'Four Color' although only one has opened up there will be dark blue, light blue and white

Since we haven't gotten much snow this winter, to have it all show up at the end of the year when the plants are waking up is, well, its just plain cruel.

Scilla 'Spring Beauty' Siberian Squill are some of the earliest risers and these few are especially eager

My garden beds are almost completely planned out and the seeds have been ordered. Let's get this years party started.

Tulips are very eager to get up into the sunshine.

These photos were taken as our late winter snow dump of 3" melted away after one day. I love winters in Utah.

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A Day in the Life

"Maybe a person's time would be as well spent raising food as raising money to buy food. "-- Frank A. Clark

Up before the sun again. Went out into the garden and yard for a little communing with nature and was greeted by a big beautiful full moon just above the Western horizon. Also to meet me were a couple roosters down the street and some robins – one with a very large worm.

The wind is a bit cool for the what the thermometer says is 70 degrees. Feels nice after the high heat of the afternoons. You know it’s going to hot when its 70 degrees at 5:30 AM.

Filled the bird feeders, poured fresh water into the bird baths and then was off to care for some plants. After attaching the liquid plant food sprayer to the garden hose I fed all the containers and hanging baskets as well as the earth-bound annuals.

There’s a low-hanging branch of the dogwood tree in the front yard that has been bothersome when I mow so I pruned that off. Also, while I had the pruning shears in hand I took off the suckers from around the apple tree. Next up is the plum and cherry trees. The Cherry Tree. I have to pause a bit whenever I think of this ole girl. Something has a hold on it and it isn’t pleasant. Each year, more and more of its once stately branches are staying bare through summer’s heat. In the past we have gotten many, many pounds of sweet juicy fruit from this old lady. Enough so that we freely share it with the birds. But something evil has moved in and this year we haven’t gotten one cherry from her. It’s too sad to contemplate her future but I fear it is going to be needed soon.

Along the same line – that being pests – I set out six small containers of beer for a little slug suicide party. Only two of the containers caught anything for a total of six slugs. Not a very good catch especially since I know there there are a lot more than that out there. So, the party will be extended through tonight.

Pulled all the veggie containers out from under their protective row covers to catch some early morning sunlight, the best time of day for them. They being well-fed and well-watered should recover nicely from the harvest we took yesterday for our salads.

That’s it for this morning from the Utah Valley. Hope everyone’s day is pleasurable and at least productive in some way.

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