On Sunday the sun came out around 9AM so I went outside. The plan was to clean out this garden, the New West garden, feed it, plant some pansies and move on.
I was going to move onto here as it was in the sun, the New South garden.
If I was real ambitious, I might make it all the way to this end.
And then there were the delusions of grandeur that I’d make it to this garden and plant pansies and sweet peas.
So I got all set up and started at the back, cleaning out the mess. I found a squill with a bud back there and the coltsfoot bud had opened. My intern had said she’d stop by for a visit sometime. She showed up at 9:45.
I hadn’t been able to find a planter on Saturday and had looked online, but the ones most like what I wanted were nearby and didn’t ship. I didn’t know when or how I’d get to the stores to find one.
So when my intern showed up so early, I asked if she would take me and she agreed. So we trotted off to the store and I found just one that I liked for $20, so I snapped it up.
She had to head back home as Tom is boiling maple sap today and needs the help. I collected all the stuff I needed to remove the old box and all the weeds and to set up the new box.
My husband had built the old box back around 2012 and it had rotted away.
The weeds had grown into the box and over the stones in the last few years. They were up to 5” deep in places. So I dug them out, found the buried stones and set the new box in place. I used some Fafard potting media, some of the bio-char compost, and some Flower-Tone. Then I planted 4 pansies. I left room for other flowers later in the season. I’m hoping the rain in the night washes the stones clean.
I sent these photos to my intern to thank her for taking me and mentioned the next project would be repainting the sign. She immediately wrote back and said she loved painting and would like to take it on. So maybe she will get to it later on.
This is what it looked like in April 2017 when I finished it.
When I finished the box it was nearly noon and I was chilled. It had been a little too cold for me to be out and it got me. The house was cold too, as the sun was supposed to stay out, so I didn’t light stoves. But it didn’t. I had some hot lunch and took a nap under quilts for 2 hours. When I got up there still was no sun, so I lit both stoves. It warmed up fast then.
We had to keep taking these chairs in and out of the Tonka garage as we needed things. So I decided to just put them out under the trees. Normally they don’t come out until May.
On Monday it’s not supposed to warm up until noon. I have laundry to do, that crashed plant to repot, and the amendment listing to work on, so I won’t be bored.
I hope to go out and finish that New West garden after lunch. The contractor comes at 3PM so I will have to be done by then.