an unfinished bear
It was a glorious, warm, sunshiny day. We had errands to run this morning when the man got home. A trip to section 6 and then from store to store to find the correct surge protector that was determined to elude us.
The man was tired and hungry, so I dropped him off. I was unwilling to give up. I can't use the treadmill until I can properly install it. Kind of crazy making. What good is it to have a fun toy that you can't use? Sheesh.
Then I found it at the first place I visited. The first place that I wanted to go... but everyone kept suggesting this place and that place. Doesn't it figure? Oh well. I have it now and that was a victory! Tomorrow we will work on setting it up.
Once the man was off to dream land... I was off outside. Yay! Or that's what I said until I looked at my sad, winter damaged yard. My war with the weeds has begun once more and they are waaaaayyy ahead of me.
I decided to keep it simple. Start with a small area that I can tackled in one day. Such is the delusion in my head. Its a small strip of a bed completely surrounded by concrete... the house foundation and our walk to the front door from the driveway to the porch. Its maybe 2 feet wide and about 30 feet long.
Last year I was able to use my hula hoe to clean it out in less than an hour. But last year it had no desirable plants within it. Not until C4C came up for the wedding and bought a bunch of violas and petunias to plant in it. It made a very lovely bed.
Violas and petunias are not perennials. They are annuals, which means that they usually need to be replanted every year. But because of our unusually warm winter and being so close to the warmth and protection of the house... my wedding flowers all came back! Of course they look a bit worse for wear at this point and needed care.
Because they were there... I needed to carefully remove weeds around them before I could tend to their individual needs. I have a variety of weed here that is tiny, lacy and abundant. I ended up sitting on a towel on the concrete with my feet placed carefully into the bed and weeding one weed at a time between my legs. Not my method of choice. It took sooooo long!
In fact, I took a break to buy myself some motivation. I love the violas and petunias. But eventually I want to let my yard evolve into a place that tends its own needs. Perennials can be purchased that are self-weeding. Either their foliage crowds out weeds or they repel them in some chemical defense way.
Off I went to Bi-Mart to buy $20.00 worth of perennials. That does not buy many as it turns out. I will have to adjust that to an additional $20 tomorrow to finish the bed. I bought a couple of "candytuft" ,which are white blooms on dark evergreen shrubby plants, a couple of pretty orange and rose colored columbine and a couple of something new to me called lithodora, which has blue striped white flowers on a sort of succulent looking foliage.
By the end of my day, I had half of my flower bed cleared and the new plants set where I will bury them tomorrow when the bed is properly watered. I trimmed back my petunia and violas, cutting off leggy parts and dead parts. It was a late afternoon well spent.
I purchased all they had of the plants I wanted. So tomorrow I will head a few blocks the other direction to Fred Meyers for more of the same. I like a balanced look of color in my bed. Once I remove the last third of the bed's worth of weeds and get these plants all in, they should fill the bed nicely as they become established. Next year will be the last year I will need to add to this bed. Then I can turn my attention to another area of the yard.
Okay... enough plant talk.
Good news! Boo, Saucy and bran new baby Oliva are coming! They will be here Saturday afternoon sometime. I am so excited! Olivia is 5 weeks old now... and babies change so much so fast. I can't wait to see her now that she keeps her eyes open and is much more alert.
Boo said he has a few surprises for me. What can that mean? Are they getting married? Would that be a visit from Sookie or Max too? So many happy possibilities! What if Squeaky drives them down with his license? Hummmm
I guess I will have to wait and see.
Spring is inspirational! What activities are you springing into? Baseball? Gardening? Barbecuing?
