Spring Lawn and Garden
Spring Lawn and Garden, 2008After thirty years of worrying with this hillside of clay we finally begin to reap some of the pleasure for having done so. Last year I invested my annual 200.00 in sage plants, grass seed, a few tomato cages, a load of top soil, and that was about all.
The sage plants do well on this ridge but must have the tomato cages around them because the lawn mower will so easily mow them. They are really nothing but just small sprigs at first. The effort was worth it because this spring they are blooming in a prolific way down the drive. Im impressed enough to go for two or three more.
The roto-tiller broke up a small portion of my back yard for a garden. This is where I have marked off four foot by four foot squares with runways between them wide enough so the riding lawn mower can
pass through. In those squares I have tomatoes, radishes, strawberry plants, carrots, squash, turnips and along the edge will be planted okra.
I always like for the weather to be warm so the soil is through and through warm before planting okra. This spring has been anything but that.
Where is this global warming they are talking about? I ask. Some days it is so shivering cold I must put on a coat to put up with it.
This week-end Rod cleaned up some brush he had stacked. We like to leave a place for the rabbits to hide from the snow, but instead, snakes and mice can collect there, too. He did run some mice out because we had a couple owls that night. Our tribe does not like the owl and I have mixed feelings about this. Sometimes, I believe they didnt like them because they visit, when mice are around. The mice, of course, are the culprits for carrying disease. The question comes, Why hate the owl when he is just doing what he was created to do, eat mice? Anyway, the brush piles are gone and I can rake that area to use the mulch from where it was. The owls didnt visit the second night so hopefully, we destroyed the mices protected, place.
A friend so many years ago gave me a start of what we call winter onions. I had them planted along the drive and some family objected to their strong fragrance while they were unloading a car. I moved them to an, out of the way area, and they must be happy there, because there are unbelievable numbers of them this year. It is wonderful not to have to plant onions. These come back every year and, in fact, if the winter is not too severe, will winter over.
Blooming and fragrant at this time are: long drooping white flowers of the locust trees, one variety of Iris, and lilacs. The Privit hedge will soon bloom and they are fragrant, too. There is no perfume with the Weigela but the pink and lavender blossoms are lovely. Jasmine blooms are sweet at this time, too.
The dark foliage of plum trees in front and the Barberry bushes add a touch of contrast to the over all green of this lawn.
I did conquer to area of the ridge that was threatening to wash. My family hated the newspapers with a mixture of Spagnum moss and Cypress mulch. I sprinkled some of the top soil over it so the sandwich wasnt so trashy looking and today a fine cover of Bermuda grass grows over the whole thing. I imagine I can hear a crunch of rotted newspapers, but really think this is just my awareness of what is under the Bermuda grass. Doesnt matter, the small area is green and doesnt have runners of where the water was washing it.
Here is my gardening page if you wish to go over it.
http://www.electricscotland.com/gardening/america.htm
You can click on the photographs at the top of the page and it takes you to some of Alastairs photography of Scotland. He has actually become quite an accomplished landscape photographer. Scroll down to Sterling Castle, click on it to enlarge and then again to see the detail so clearly.