Monday, April 19, 2010

Three down, five hundred ninety-seven to go...

Played hooky from work again today, planted a Mount Royal plum in my backyard, found space for a few hostas my sister dug from her place, and relocated a few scattered irises. There's so much space to fill here, it's going to take a few hundred more holes and more plants than I am able to envision at the moment, but I made some small progress today in a couple areas closest and most visible to the house. The four peonies on the south side of the house are now a meter high and balling up, getting ready to burst open in another week or two, and it's not even May yet... Crazy.

The rhubarb is leafing out nicely, although it's now occupied by a colony of ants; I discovered they'd taken up residence in one of the buds about a week ago, and I cut that one out, but (naturally) they simply moved next door... Not sure what to do about that but I might try dousing or dusting them with a chili pepper solution.

The soil here, in the yard and most of the gardens, seems to be quite rich--dark and moist and full of fat earthworms, which I take to be a good sign. Seems the birds of the neighborhood do, too.

Lilacs are beginning to bud, which revealed the identity of the little tree out front to be a Japanese lilac with what look to be pink blossoms (or perhaps purplish, though apparently less likely). Other perennials are filling in, but it may be a few weeks or months before I'll know what they are... bit of a hindrance to the design process but also something of a reprieve. I might just have to wait until next year on a few things.

All in all, not much for a day's work (if that's what it was), but things go as they will. And I'm going to bed.

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