Friday, 22-Mar-13

Yard

• The willow, especially, had a good trimming with all the wind this winter. Lots to pick up in the yard.
• The tête-à-têtes are blooming prettily. Added another French pot this year. They look so happy in their corner.
• Ed mowed mowed for the first time in ages. Parts had to be cut with the strimmer first. 
• The flowering quince are flowering the best they have since we've been here. The plants really are huge. I'm used to the knee-high kind used in Dutch plantsoens.

Pots

• Potted three different basils (regular, purple, and the small "Mediterranean" on to set in the kitchen window (outside) with the lemon thyme. Hoping we might be able to keep some herbs going through the winter by closing those shutters on cold nights. Maybe.
• Put two boughten cilantro pots into one pot.
• Looks like we lost quite a few potted plants, including the lemon, through the winter. The olive is still going, though.

Salad garden

• Most of the old sage in the pot on top of one of the fosse septique portholes is dead. (It's planted itself around that.) I cleared that out, but will have to get Ed to help lifting the pot so we can dump the dirt and start again. Plan to use pot to contain mint. Will try to isolate one or two bits of the sage and trim it more tidily. I use fresh sage a lot more than I expected, so it's nice to have around.
• This area really needs to be rethought since the woodshed went in. Think I'll start by making a ring of rocks around the umbrella tree to contain that narcissus and stuff there. Don't have any ideas right now how to do the rest. There's the fosse septique portholes to work around. And a very nice rosemary plant. The remains of some thyme that doesn't seem to  have fared well over the winter. Tosca's plant that I'd like to move around the bird feeder, but may have waited too late.

South Forty

• All the fruit trees and parental trees seem to be doing well. I was a bit worried about the pecan but it's got swelling buds now. 
• There's a flowering shrub flowering that I'll have to look up. First time we've seen it flower. I see the shrub around, but don't know its name. This one's pretty scrubby looking, but maybe we can trim it tidily after it finishes flowering. 
• The probably-a-forsythia has two good twigs, no leaves or flowers.
• Lots of violets blooming, especially the white ones which seem to be taking over.

Potager

• The potager itself is a serious mess, desperately in need of mulch, belatedly, if we're going to do the no-dig thing. 
• Gathered up the empty toilet rolls and seeds from year before last and planted up a bunch of stuff for the potager. Some of these are a bit out of date, but we'll see what happens.

Entry

• What ho! The clematis, which I'd given up for a loss is leafing out. Should I get another for the other side or something else?
• The hydrangea fills only half the space under the pergola. Needs to be added to or replaced.