In the garden...

I haven’t done any weeding yet this year, so as usual, I’m starting out the gardening season already behind. M has done the majority of the spring clean up, including removing one of four of the yew trees that line the front of our house. The one closest to the door has been dying for years, but I wasn’t quite ready to give up on it. He’s been ready to rip it out since the browning/dying process started. Now that it’s gone, we have a very strange looking bare spot in front of the house, and then the three remaining yews (and one of those isn’t looking too good). We’re trying to come up with something for that spot that we both like, but haven’t yet selected anything.

L has promised that THIS year will be the year that she REALLY sticks with weeding. She is hoping to earn enough for a laptop. I, too, am hoping she sticks with it this year, because it’s clear that I don’t have the time to keep it up properly and really need the help.

There are still lots of daffodils hanging on, tons of grape hyacinths, and a lot of tulips. Some of the tulips and daffodils are already done at this point. The magnolia tree is still looking fantastic, and the peonies (all except one) have buds. Most of the alliums are up with buds, and there are a couple that have opened already.

The catnip is vigorously growing, and we’ve already taken fresh cuttings in for the cats to party with three times this year. The poppies have germinated and we have thousands of them right now that are about 1-2”. In a few short weeks, we should have quite a poppy display.

We haven’t yet planted our containers or even picked up plants for them, but M & L started three containers of greens from seed. They’re looking good right now, and I’m hoping to get at least one meal for the rabbits & guinea pigs before it gets too hot for greens. It’s very hard to keep up with the produce needs of the buns & pigs, and since they can only eat organic produce, it can be tough to find and very expensive. We can’t start seeds in the house anymore (so our growing table and lights just sit there tragically unused), but I would like to experiment with different ways to grow greens outside for as much of the year as possible. They are very cheap to grow and very expensive to purchase, so I’d like to reduce the amount we have to buy.