A Return to the Garden

Now that the weather is a bit warmer and the days longer I'm back in the garden. I take a look around and wonder where on earth I'm going to find the time to get all the things done that must be done. Yesterday I worked several hours after arriving home from the office. I put in the hollies that will replace my deceased japonicas. Now I still have have a false cypress to plant and a clump birch for the front lawn.

I also trimmed back some of the liriope and pulled up landscape fabric that I put down several years ago. That was a BIG mistake to use. I think I could hear the soil breath as I pulled it out. I have found that layers of newspaper beneath the mulch works so much better keeping weeds and grass down and is far better for the soil. The area at the right is where I was working and this is my "helper". He seems to have adopted us as his family.

This little japonica has survived a couple of winters and I love the blooms. I have two that are struggling so I plan on relocating and trying to salvage them.

Spring is Approaching!

It's quite chilly here on the Hill this morning, gray and very wintry looking, but there are signs that spring is approaching. There are robins and blue jays everywhere. Jonquils have poked their heads up but my crocus did not return. I will talk with my neighbor soon and have them drop a skid of mulch when he gets his order in for the greenhouse. I will go out the next warm day and begin spring cleanup of the beds.

I have decided that I am going to use a holly as the shrub near my front porch. After having so much trouble with the other things I've put in the past two springs I am very hopeful that this will be the end of redoing the landscape out there.

I have a few small trees that need to be removed farther back in the yard but with most of the vines and tangled briers gone they will be easy to take out with a small saw. I will add a good deal more grassy area when I get this accomplished. When I get to this point I am taking a few days vacation so that I can really get it finished. IF I had a fire pit I sure could get burn a lot of limbs and such. HUMMMM! A fire pit! Maybe that another project to add to the never ending list.

Dreaming of Warm Days

It's cold here today. It's gonna get colder before the week is over but last week gardening catalogues arrived in the mail. Things look a bit bleak in my garden at this time but soon, very soon there will be crocus peeking thru and the cold will give way to warmer days and more daylight hours. This spring, I hope to get in lots of herbs and some vegetables. Just as soon as the weather warms I'm putting in raised beds. Had plans to do it all last spring but just never got around to doing so. Not sure how much I will harvest or how much the critters will devour but we shall see. There was a fairly good size herd of deer in the woods the other day and a couple of them were down close to the house because they left tracks in the snow. Nothing else looks like "deer tracks in the snow".

Looking out the kitchen window late the other afternoon I saw the fox. She was on the hill behind the house looking as if she were surveying her "kingdom". This time of year we often here them barking but January thru March is mating season for the red fox. They can have up to 12 pups but I've only seen this one with two. They are really neat animals.

Their only real enemies are cars and humans but distemper, rabies and mange may also cause them concerns. Once trapped for their fur and killed by farmers because of their attacks on poultry the red fox took a heavy "beating? Now with no more bounty payments for their fur and most poultry farms more or less "safety proof" from predators the red fox is expanding. The Coyote seems to be one of their biggest competitors and like the fox it is expanding it's field. So far we have neither seen nor heard Coyotes for that I am very thankful.

Happy New Year!

It's been well over a month since I've posted but I had three weeks away from the University and I really enjoyed the winter holidays. Came back to work Monday and found that the venelation work being done on our building had left us without heat in some of the rooms. Brrrrrr! Was almost in the thirties in some of the offices. On Tuesday everyone came in bundled up and still complaining but by Wednesday when the students returned we had some My kids and grandkids came for Christmas on December 24 and we had a wonderful time then on Sunday after Christmas they all came back to my house along with my sister and her family. As for all the holidays everyone ate too much.

Other excitement in my life - my car, which my daughter was driving and my grandson was a passesnger, was totaled when someone ran a red light, hit another van and then both hit my car. The driver that caused all the problem then got out of his van and fled the scene. The police did get him about two block away. No one got injured so that was good.

This is my new vehicle. Guess one might consider it an unexpected Christmas present to myself.

It is snowing steadily here this morning. According to the weather we are only suppose to have 1-2 inches today and then thru Saturday it could be up to 4 inches. Around here that's enough to cause problems.

Late Thanksgiving

Here on the Hill at five in the morning, it's thirty-two degrees but feels like it is in the twenties. Those that know predict that by afternoon it will have warmed into the high fifties. Personally I have my doubts on that. I will be happy just to have it a little warmer.

There's not much going on in the garden, that's for sure. Late yesterday afternoon I found a blackeyed Susan, close to the house and well protected, with bright yellow flowers.

Tomorrow the family will all be here for dinner. I did not do Thanksgiving on Thursday because the kids all have other places they need to go on that day and it's just easier if we do it on another day. Work was generous this year-we were off, not only Thursday and Friday, for the holiday but also Wednesday. I had already taken Monday as a vacation day. Wednesday I painted the wall of the stairs and about half the foyer so on Monday, if all goes as planned, I will finish painting up there. Since I've moved into this house people who just come to expect me to have some project in process when they arrive. The coming week contractors will be working here so amid my Christmas decorations will be ladders, etc. Even my young grandchildren have learned to avoid the ladders and such. (Sigh) One day it will all be finished and I can just sit back and enjoy it. Then what will I find to have "in process"? I've renovated and remodeled houses most of my life so I just don't know what to do if I don't have something in process.

Changing Weather, Holiday Cactus, Reblooming Iris

Out on the Hill this morning it was really quite nice for this time in Novemeber - somewhere in the upper forties. The wind was still but there seems to be a chance of some rain moving into our area along with some much cooler air and there was the mention of a snow flake or two on Thursday. Brrrrrrrr!

Saturday was a gorgeous day which I spent cleaning up the flower beds. The lawn guy picked up leaves and cleaned out the gutters on Thursday so on Saturday I did the flower beds-Last and final cleanup until spring, I hope.

Last evening I went out and cut all of my reblooming Iris. I wanted to bring them in before the weather changed and there are still several unopened buds on them that I hope. My Thanksgiving/Christmas cactus are blooming also. I hope the blooms are all open on the Sunday after Thanksgiving since that is when all my family is coming for dinner.

I did my menu last evening so I have to go to the grocery later this week.

So What IF IT's Friday the 13th

Saturday morning the crew all showed up at my house to help clean up the back section of my yard and load all the limbs, brush and whatever else I had cut earlier in the summer, into the dumpster that I had rented. There were stacks of cinder blocks from the foundation of an old building that burned long before I bought the property and other old junk that someone had piled at the edge of the woods and over time had become overgrown with vines. The guys pulled out a couple of small metal tanks and then another two and another two (six in all). We discovered that they were not tanks but old water heaters and they were all stacked on top of a cistern. In the spring I will see if I can get someone to come take down the few small trees that grow along the back of the yard and a very dilapidated old building that seems to be defying gravity in the fact it's still standing. All the stuff below was gone when they finished. WoooHooo!

I have to get out and make some more pics of the cleanup area. Maybe this weekend.

Sunrise on the hill

This is a view from my driveway at about 7:20 this morning. Sunrise out there is almost always breathtaking.

This one is taken about five minutes after the above picture. Amazing how fast the view can change.


It was a chilly thirty eight degrees this morning but the afternoon has been in the sixties. We are looking forward to a beautiful weekend.