On Monday morning, after procrastinating by messing with seedlings, making phone calls, and doing laundry, I finally went out and started the pastures at 10AM. I decided to do the south side of the back 40 (actually 3½ acres) as it would be the worst for poison ivy.
There were an awful lot of downed branches; it seems even more than last year. And last year hadn’t been done for 3 years. There were several breaks in the fence also. I brought the truck out as I didn’t feel up to hauling all the wire and the tool bucket.
I made it to the crest of the sandhill by 12:30 and all the bending up and down had worn me out. But it was a good start. Hopefully this was the worst of it. Now if I can just avoid getting poison ivy…
When I got back to the house, these tulips had opened. I am so delighted with these super hardy tulips. They have quite a history.
About 25 years ago, maybe longer, they graced the flag pole garden at the hospital where my husband worked. They decided to renovate the entrance and that garden was to go. My husband chanced along as they were about to dig it up, and he dug out the plants. The bulbs had been planted at least 16” deep! They were nearly 3’ long from bulb to flower. He brought them home after work, and I planted them in the middle of the yard around a newly planted magnolia tree in the middle of what is now the New Herb garden.
A very few years later, the magnolia died and I eventually took that garden out of the middle of the lawn. I dug up the bulbs and planted them around the catalpa and west maple trees. They lived there for 20 years or so. They’d get fed when I could afford bulb food but never regularly. Some years I never got much for flowers and usually I thought most of them had died or were dying.
In 2019 my friend and I dug them all up again because of the construction. Those trees had to come down. I put them in pots and put the pots in the Big garden. I covered the pots with hardware cloth weighed down with big stones. They lived in the pots for 2 years.
Last summer, around August, I finally planted them in this spot. After all they’d been through I didn’t expect much. Others from that group are planted in the spring across the front of the New South garden, the South garden, and the New East garden. These haven’t done quite as well as the ones above.
The rest of the New West garden and the little East of Steps garden.
The little West of Steps garden and the South garden. These 4 gardens are what greets you as you enter the house. I need to find more perennial plants for the bigger gardens and some annuals for color.
On Tuesday, it’s not supposed to rain until noon. My cleaning helper will be here and I plan to tackle to front pasture fences and make sure it’s ready for haying late in May. If it does rain in the morning, she will take me shopping instead.