The same weekend as the Lady Rocket program, we had nice enough weather that I could get outside and clean up old leaves and debris around the yard, and there were signs of life starting to poke through the mulch. Life seemed a little better.
Then, on April 15, this happened:
Boo.
BUT THEN! I had that next weekend, Monday, and Tuesday off, and it was 60-70 all 4 days and sunny most of the time. Hooray! I spent the entire 4 days working on a significant project in the yard: digging up all the cheap black plastic edging on my plant beds in the back and front yards, expanding the back bed, straightening out the side bed, mulching, and placing edger stones around all the beds.
Of note, the stones are 13.5 lbs. each, and we had well over 200 of them (including the pallet of 144 I hauled home in the back of a rented Home Depot truck and the remaining however many we brought home via several trips in our cars).
Here are some pictures of the bed on the east side of the house:
Doing that straight line of pavers was a whore. Same bed, from the back:
I spent a while yesterday pulling invasive garlic mustard from all around the base of that hydrangea under the window in that picture. That’s one of my favorite plants and does really well in that spot, plus it’s a transplant from Bossman’s yard. I’m pretty worried about that garlic mustard, which had super spready jerky roots, strangling that hydrangea out. Any garlic mustard leaves I see in there now are going to get roundupped, I don’t even care. I don’t even remember seeing garlic mustard anywhere last year, and now the wooded lot behind us has a ton (and may have recently been roundupped through the fence). Stupid invasive species.
Pictures of the edgers in the front yard:
Now the backyard. First, the little area with the burning bush on the Dog Lady side:
Here’s where I picked up some MORE ROOM for MORE PLANTS! and a birdbath:
I think it will look nice when all the plants fill in more.
Current tally for work hours in my own yard: 60+. Current tally for Master Gardener Volunteer Hours: 0. Oh well.
Growing Degree Days for Holland: 162. The star magnolias have bloomed, and the saucer magnolias, crabapples, and the serviceberries (I just realized the tree outside the door at work with the white flowers is a serviceberry!) are starting to bloom. I’m trying to grow some flowering plants from seed, and some of them are sprouting. So exciting. Spring is the best.