I was up at 5AM and got my post up. I didn’t feel like cleaning the disaster of a kitchen so I could process the last of the sugar pod peas. I didn’t feel like folding and putting laundry away. I didn’t feel like doing anything, a common occurrence after a long busy day like Thursday was.
But it was to be a very nice day, not getting hot until noon, with low humidity. I just couldn’t waste it. So at 6AM, I went outside. The project was the West Shed garden and this is what it looked like. The main impetus was to get the bulbs in pots into the ground before they rotted.
They had been put here when we renovated the 7th Fence garden.
So I collected all my equipment and got started. First was to remove all the dead daylily and iris stalks. Then I had a lot of very buggy leaves to cut back. Once that was done, I could weed.
This garden only had daylilies and white iris and 1 tulip that I hoped to find. (I didn’t.)
By 8:30AM I had it all cleaned out and went in to do the milk order. I hadn’t decided what I was going to do about putting the edging in, as it was normally 2 person job, and a standing one. I usually recruited my son, but he wouldn’t be around until 1PM and I didn’t want to work in the sun and heat.
So I decided to try to do it myself. We’d had rain so the trench would mostly stay open, not crumble like when dry. I found 2 pieces of edging each about 12½’ long. That was just a little more than I needed. I put the best one in on the south end and then fit the other one beside it and ran it out.
Once the soil was packed up to the edging on both sides, I could finally start planting the daffodil bulbs. But first I had to dig them out of the pots and that took a good amount of time. I saved all the dirt, cleaned, in sleds to fill the low spots on both sides of the edging.
Then I started planting. The bulbs were not very big so I put the biggest one, with 2 small ones, in each hole after adding a couple tablespoons of BulbTone to the bottom. Then I made a numbered marker for each one. That way I won’t dig them up when planting annuals.
I hadn’t saved enough bulbs so I went to get the pot in the cold frame. The ones in the pot on the bottom had started to rot. But I had enough, plus 3 extras that I put in the West garden, to put 32 spots in the West Shed garden.
I then put the extra dirt down and got my notes and cleaned up the huge mess I had made. It was 11:30AM and just starting to get hot as the sun was coming around the end of the shed.
Perennial sweet peas under the crabapple tree
I rested for a while, made some lunch, put a load of dishes in the dishwasher, adjusted windows and shades against the sun, and went to bed for a nap. I got up at 4PM and just sat watching videos until suppertime.
July evening
I’m not sure what I will do on Saturday. The peas, in cold water in the fridge, need to be done and the kitchen cleaned up and laundry finished. I’m sure there’s cukes to harvest, probably zucchini and summer squash, and maybe something else in the Big garden.
Evening light on the New Herb garden
But it’s to be another nice day like Friday was, so maybe I will go out and clean out the East Shed garden as it’s gotten pretty bad.