18 January: dirt

Tuesday, 18 January 2022

Hamamelis (witch hazel) in the front garden smells like apricots.

We made the dump run that has been brewing, with an ever increasing trailer load of branches, since we started the front fence project. On the way, we picked up library books and I removed unsightly leaves from hellebores at the library’s entry garden.

Small fuchsia plants are in the empty looking areas.

Allan had added some more debris to the trailer this morning.

The dump has a stumpery.

On the way back through downtown Long Beach, I noticed a freeze blasted Melianthus major in Fifth Street Park and just had to stop.

I did not pull the weeds. We really aren’t planning to work till mid February. It was hard to resist, though, and it does feel good to view the parks as our territory again.

The purpose of emptying the trailer was to go to Susie’s garden and bucket up some of a pile of dirt, probably mostly brown sand, that was by the street by her driveway. It was surprisingly not weedy and would be useful to build up a willow grove garden bed. We included rubble because Bob Nold’s great gardening book, High and Dry, recommends using rubble to increase the height and volume of a garden bed.

I want all the dirt, so we will be returning later this week.

We parked on the gear shed access road to move the buckets into the south garden, very convenient now that we have a path cleared to our gate.

I had enough for a layer on that bed, which will then be topped off with some good mulch, when I acquire some.

Two friends visited who wanted to see the frog bog that is under threat, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. With each, I walked around the block and into the new garden area. They loved the look of the frog pond and marveled at the standing water all around and on the proposed building site. And they both enjoyed and admired the new fence and garden area on which we have been working so hard.