Today I finished up planting in all the mints. There are still a lot of goodly clumps of grass in between the mints for now to help hold the hill in place while the mints establish themselves. But man, years from now.. someone is going to buy this place and have a mint jungle, lol. The lemon mint I think is going to be the most... predatory of them all after the chocolate mint. I actually had to yank chocolate mint out of the pineapple mint patch and get it back into it's own area, lol. But the lemon mint got placed into the outside edge of the whole border, to trail up and down the edge. So when I mow it will smell like chocolate and lemon, yay! The ginger mint is by far the most beautiful, being a smooth leaved variegated. I tried to plant them all in so that even when they get grown in I will still be able to tell them apart mostly.
Pulled up a heap of kudzu- die kudzu die! And removed a handful of baby weedy trees and raspberries. Moved some variegated ivy too. That whole area will bend to my will damnit.
Got the herb bed weeded, and the variegated sweet marjoram planted in. Now it's just weed, weed, cut back tarragon, weed, weed for the rest of the season there. And ooohhhh, the fancy alliums I planted in the outside corner of the herb garden are just about to burst into bloom! I really wanted to get more weeding done on that side of the house today, but hell, there is only one me and so much to do.
Got the other side of trouble hill done with it's cleanup- I found two little chamomile plants growing! And one seriously disturbed toad, I'm surprised I didn't sit on him by accident, lol. But now that whole area is cleaned up and ready to go for planting in the chamomile and toothache plants- and I finally got the four dwarf lavenders in too :) I'm going to plant in some of the coleus in that area too for pretty foliage.
Got the area where the smoke tree is going to get planted in marked off. No, it didn't get worked on today for planting in the tree- I have no idea when my sister is going to get that done, but she said she will be doing it tomorrow.
Got a couple pots of the daffodils planted in, the small branching ones. Those went in under the maple on the other side of the house. As time comes for it, I am going to give that whole area a vigorous weeding! It needs a thinning out big time.
Got three large dead limbs sawed off in the orchard- one on an apple, two off the apricot tree. And a handful of snipping too. I didn't want to do too much on the trees since they are now in full bloom. But I think the sour cherry tree will be grateful not to be overhung by the dead apple limb anymore :)
I split up and repotted all the coleus- man, there were a ton of them, there is now 2 1/2 flats of the things! A couple of them from the mixed container are turning out to be absolutely beautiful dark purples and rusts- I guess I got a fondness for those over the variegated purple and greens which is what I mostly have. But I will be planting in a heap of those in a couple weeks- I am absolutely going to pay mind to seed saving and taking cuttings from some of those beauties when the time comes.
Now that I am cleaned up and tick free- it's time to get on with some other things. I gotta get a frost blanket over the mini greenhouses that have the tomatoes and peppers in them, and got some cooking to do- need to make up a couple quarts of pickled mushrooms! And since I drained off the pepper chive vodka today, I need to finish that up as well.
May 13...
Still didn't get the pickled mushrooms done. Good thing mushrooms can hold for a while, lol.
I did however enjoy sleeping in till 9 this morning. Good lord, a whole uninterrupted 10 hours sleep can do you a world of wonders. I had the hubby help me with flipping around the mattress and futon layer last night, and with a re-fluff of the feather bed, it was a heavenly rest.
But even the best rest must come to an end, heh.
Today I busted out and got the first leg of the front yard border done. 3x14 of sod dug out, and 4 hardy hibiscus, 7 mums, and 8-10 each of 4 different kinds of narcissus planted in. Along with a goodly smattering of Papaya and Cream nasts to grow in for this summer. Sis dug the hole to plant in her smoke tree, and kind of dug out the ring for Night Beacon lillies around the tree. Of course when I put down straw over the beds, I put down extra around her bed in hopes of smothering out weeds where she skimped out on. But now the new beds are done in the front yard. Hopefully they will like their new homes, and grow in big and strong.
After that I should have done a bunch of weeding around the solarium- but decided to do a round of mowing around the front yard instead. By gosh the grass already needed the mowing, and I really wasn't up to a round of weeding after busting my ass for 5 hours with bedwork, lol. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I don't have to be in till afternoon tomorrow, so hopefully I will get the solarium areas weeded out and seeded in then.
In good news, though it has been 40's and below overnight last night and tonight, the garden squashes and beans are holding on and growing in right fine. After tonight, we are supposed to be seeing another warm streak that will hopefully lead into a sustained warm pattern, and I can get more plants put out into the garden areas.
May 15....
Got some cooking done yesterday, and a bit of weeding, not much else- it was a work day, smack dab in the middle of the day.
Today I got the whole solarum beds weeded out, a royal PITA every time. Moved a goodly chunk of violets off to under the pinkbud tree in back- I figure they got a good chance of settling in there, and hey, then the less mowing around that stupid little tree, lol. I planted in all the Milkmaid nasturium seed I had there too- they did pretty well last year there, I'm hoping since I cleared out more space, I will get an even better flush of lovely creamy blossoms this year.
Dug up a crapola of area on the edge of the solarium bed on the south and it looks much nicer now. I've discovered that a lot of the hyacinths have produced seed pods this year! So yepper, you bed I will be saving the seed and planting it in again. I also planted in all the glad bulbs I saved last year- got no idea which ones are which, I didn't mark the bins, oops. But they did all go into their own bags, so I planted them all in their own rows. So we shall see what comes up. I also planted up three pots of Alaska Salmon nasturtiums for the front porch- those get pretty blooms and variegated foliage.
Took time to take pics of the new beds out front, the garlic beds, and the squash and bean bed down by the garlic beds...
So.. now I'm off to get ready for work!
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