Friday, 19 April 2024
Allan went to Patty’s house to replace a roof panel on her porch/catio. Good job!
Later, he tried spray painting a styrofoam cooler for me to turn it into a faux stone trough. The expensive paint (my choice based on something I read) was a total fail even though it claimed to be good for the purpose. $16 down the drain. Next will try just regular old black paint!
I puttered at home, starting with sifting one load of compost out of the already sifted compost in bin two. The resifting did provide more, thank goodness, because I needed it to finish one area.
Bins two and three:
In bin three above, the green result of an idea: I have two much elephant garlic and if I dig it and then cut off the bulbs, I can get green stuff for the compost, and, in fact, this applies to most plants and even some weeds (not horsetail or bindweed) that I might dig up and discard.
Squeezed out this much compost for a low spot next to the bench.
I did some weeding in the driveway garden that I had not been able to do because it has been too miserably cold and windy. In one of the concrete troughs:
Today it was too hot to stay out there in the sun! Almost 70. So in the afternoon, I retreated to the willow grove where I could finally weed because of no wind. I found another veratrum by the deep swale.
The swale has dried up and the frog bog water has dropped low. Our weather has been so dry. Where are our April showers? The forecast for summer is dire:
And Pacific Northwest news reports are predicting warmer than usual weather all summer and a drought because of the lack of snowpack and little rain. Oh dear.
Well, for today the soil in the willow grove was still damp.
My helper arrives.
Looking east…
I was thrilled to see three cardiocrinums, including one that is two years old in the garden and quite sizeable.
Lots of pretty but pesky Spanish bluebells in the far southeast corner…
Looking west:
I moved five of my new big river rocks to the bed by the deep path and wondered if they look silly (well, they are not dug in yet).
Seems my lack of garden confidence is persisting. But…I have primulas!
Allan also noticed some primulas…
…and the Fatsia japonica ‘Spider’s Web’ in his garden.
And look, cosmos are already coming up in the seed trays. With them, I hope to make my garden and the post office garden and fire station look good.
Your composting efforts are heroic. You will need all the mulch that you can get if you really are going to get such a dry and hot summer.
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Your garden is looking pretty. Love the primulas! I am dreading a dry, hot summer. We are certainly getting a lot of rain this week, though, in late April.
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This week of rain has been so good, and a lot of it has been at night!
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