In which some headway toward spring is made
Vegas weather is beautiful this time of year. The days are warm and sunny, the nights cool and crisp. It rained twice while I was there - one of the showers even had the added feature of thunder and lightening. The trees are leafing out, and there are riots of petunias planted everywhere. When I came home last Friday I was ready for Spring.
The weather was kindly obliging, even though the state of the yard and garden made it apparent that this was a change. We spent the day Saturday in the front yard. Chris and I weeded and cleaned the iris bed, and I planted three Asiatic lilies in the back where the liatris had failed. This was a bigger job than might be imagined, since we didn't do it last year. Suffice to say that the detritus had filled the remainder of the large chicken wire yard waste bin behind the fence.
I am a dedicated composter. We create too much yard waste to concieve of dumping it into a landfill. Besides, it's the very best ammendment that you can put on your garden. And boy, does this soil need ammendment. We started several years ago with a large Rubbermaid composter, with which we have had limited success. I've just never got the hang of loading green layers and brown layers, and turning the thing over. Doesn't that negate the idea of layers?? We have gotten some compost out of it, but I'd never say that we had gotten a lot for the amount of stuff that's gone in. There is a compostng scheme where you work with three bins - one to hold the raw stuff, one to start the cooking process, breaking the raw stuff down into smaller bits, and a final cooking bin to compost the small bits. This is of course what I've got in mind.
Chris and I built a 24 cu. ft. wire and wood bin last fall, and put it behind the fence in the back yard. It's where were currently dumping leaves, sod clumps from digging new beds, and the detritus from spring yard cleaning. I will be purchasing a drum-type composter this spring to do the final compost step. They say that you can get compost out of those in 5 weeks or so. I envision great things for the herb garden this spring.
The herb garden seems to be doing well following the cleaning last month. I did pick up two rosemary and two lavendar plants to replace the winter-kill. They went into the ground on Monday. I had taken the day off, and so pent several enjoyable hours perusing garden sections at Home Depot and Lowes. I went for butterfly bushes, having cleaned up the space in front of the kitchen nook windows and dug the holes. Alas, too early. Since the space selected is contiguous with the rest of the rock border around the back porch, I cleaned out the weeds there also. There has been a telephone or cable line exposed across the rock, and in the process it was convenient to bury it. It all looks much better.
Last summer we had quite a few violas volunteer in the rock border, and it seems that we are graced with them again this year. I left the ones I found in place, and even picked up some additional seed to sprinkle. They really do look charming in the border; we just have to take care not to step on them.
Sunday morning was also productive in the back yard. Before going to Jeff's birthday party, Chris hung the bat house; I cleaned out the hollyhocks and replaced them with liatris. This bed is wetter; I hope for better results. We put Evan to work on the thistles. White vinegar is very effective in killing the foliage. The theory is that with repeated foliage kill, the root system will finally run out of energy and die. We gave him a spraybottle with the vineger, and he went to work. Thankfully, none have taken hold in the front yard.
By the end of Monday I could see spring in the garden. The irises are putting up blades, the tulips and daffodils are making appareances. Many of the herbs are in a usable state (anyone need chives??), and the grass is beginning to green. I went back to work on Tuesday planning to do more today. Little did I know that the world would be white this morning.
The forcast called for mixed rain and snow - this usually means no accumulation. And to be fair, by midmorning, the blanket of snow has subsided and turned faintly green from the underlying grass. Ah, well - it's precipitation, and no one can grumble about that this year. It really is spring on Denver.
The weather was kindly obliging, even though the state of the yard and garden made it apparent that this was a change. We spent the day Saturday in the front yard. Chris and I weeded and cleaned the iris bed, and I planted three Asiatic lilies in the back where the liatris had failed. This was a bigger job than might be imagined, since we didn't do it last year. Suffice to say that the detritus had filled the remainder of the large chicken wire yard waste bin behind the fence.
I am a dedicated composter. We create too much yard waste to concieve of dumping it into a landfill. Besides, it's the very best ammendment that you can put on your garden. And boy, does this soil need ammendment. We started several years ago with a large Rubbermaid composter, with which we have had limited success. I've just never got the hang of loading green layers and brown layers, and turning the thing over. Doesn't that negate the idea of layers?? We have gotten some compost out of it, but I'd never say that we had gotten a lot for the amount of stuff that's gone in. There is a compostng scheme where you work with three bins - one to hold the raw stuff, one to start the cooking process, breaking the raw stuff down into smaller bits, and a final cooking bin to compost the small bits. This is of course what I've got in mind.
Chris and I built a 24 cu. ft. wire and wood bin last fall, and put it behind the fence in the back yard. It's where were currently dumping leaves, sod clumps from digging new beds, and the detritus from spring yard cleaning. I will be purchasing a drum-type composter this spring to do the final compost step. They say that you can get compost out of those in 5 weeks or so. I envision great things for the herb garden this spring.
The herb garden seems to be doing well following the cleaning last month. I did pick up two rosemary and two lavendar plants to replace the winter-kill. They went into the ground on Monday. I had taken the day off, and so pent several enjoyable hours perusing garden sections at Home Depot and Lowes. I went for butterfly bushes, having cleaned up the space in front of the kitchen nook windows and dug the holes. Alas, too early. Since the space selected is contiguous with the rest of the rock border around the back porch, I cleaned out the weeds there also. There has been a telephone or cable line exposed across the rock, and in the process it was convenient to bury it. It all looks much better.
Last summer we had quite a few violas volunteer in the rock border, and it seems that we are graced with them again this year. I left the ones I found in place, and even picked up some additional seed to sprinkle. They really do look charming in the border; we just have to take care not to step on them.
Sunday morning was also productive in the back yard. Before going to Jeff's birthday party, Chris hung the bat house; I cleaned out the hollyhocks and replaced them with liatris. This bed is wetter; I hope for better results. We put Evan to work on the thistles. White vinegar is very effective in killing the foliage. The theory is that with repeated foliage kill, the root system will finally run out of energy and die. We gave him a spraybottle with the vineger, and he went to work. Thankfully, none have taken hold in the front yard.
By the end of Monday I could see spring in the garden. The irises are putting up blades, the tulips and daffodils are making appareances. Many of the herbs are in a usable state (anyone need chives??), and the grass is beginning to green. I went back to work on Tuesday planning to do more today. Little did I know that the world would be white this morning.
The forcast called for mixed rain and snow - this usually means no accumulation. And to be fair, by midmorning, the blanket of snow has subsided and turned faintly green from the underlying grass. Ah, well - it's precipitation, and no one can grumble about that this year. It really is spring on Denver.
posted by Melanie Unruh-Bays at
10:02 AM
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