Juddmansee.com

Last weekend we did a little work the yard to keep our momentum going, mostly defined the beds and moved the extra sod to the two bare areas. One area was where the bees built an underground hive a couple years ago, so there’s a valley in the lawn. The other area was under the holly bush foliage, which is now gone! We continued to consolidate the bricks to an orderly stack behind the shed. I also ordered canna rhizomes and perennials that arrived this week. Brian focused on getting new electrical service to the house (a two day event, including Brian removing ~1200 lbs of rubble from the basement, our contractor lobbying National Grid to remedy the pole corrosion post haste so we didn’t go 24 hrs+ without power. The contractor also had to come back the next day to hook up the kitchen wall, which in total exceeded their estimate for the job, but they only charged us for a fraction of the total time. Good contractors!).

Saturday of the Memorial Day weekend dawned sunny, temps in the 60s, and plenty of mail-ordered arrivals to plant. Pretty exciting! I puttered around in the morning, planting the green beans and another row of greens. (Note that the result of “puttering” was a full lawn bag of weeds. It’s an ongoing battle that I think we are winning this year!) The peas* are up! I started thinning the tiger lilies so I could plant the canna along the fenceline. I didn’t realize how much the lilies had spread until I dug them out. I have two bags of root/bulbs, a box to give away, and still tranplanted several pots and a row of them along the railroad ties. I also moved the bleeding hearts today to make room for the perennials and the tomatoes in the garden and patio beds. While I was puttering, I consolidated the firewood pile to move it closer to the maple tree, leaving more room for the tree people to navigate the spruce, and making it easier to transplant shrubs next week.

The larger patio bed has been planted:

• Monarda (bee balm) will be red in the center of the bed
• yellow Coneflowers (black eyed Susan) are in front of the monarda
• purple Salvia are in front of the Coneflowers
• blue Sedum are planted beside the Salvia
• mums will be on either side of the aisle from the patio to the lawn
• Lavender and Sage are at the back of the bed toward the patio – they smell good!
• Dusty Miller filled in a few gaps, since I had a few extra from the window boxes

This will hopefully produce a red, then yellow and purple color scheme as the season progresses. The goal is also to have some color in the yard throughout the summer and fall. The 2nd bed (where the azalea and rhododendron now reside) will have a smaller mirror image of the same plantings.

Next steps:

• The spruce tree is scheduled for removal on Tuesday
• We’re hoping to gift the holly bushes shortly to the San Clemente’s. They are wrapped in burlap in the interim.
• Once the spruce tree is gone, the azalea and rhododendron will be moved to the back fenceline
• Once the azalea and rhododendron are moved, the 2nd patio bed can be planted
• Once the spruce is moved, the poppies, helleborus (lenten rose) and lilac will finish the back fenceline

We took a break mid-day to look for a patio swing (unsuccessful), trellis and burlap (successful). We both came home and took a nap. It would have been easy to call it a day, but we caught a 2nd wind and kept digging and planting. Perhaps the biggest accomplishment of the day was to remove the holly bushes. Brian had at it, and was victorious! He also discovered some sort of underground structure, a circular brick area with a diagonal wall, that extends several feet into the yard. We are not sure what’s there but think that it’s a good time to excavate before we fill in the rather large gap and sod it over.

*Brian picked out sugar snap peas and I agreed to plant them. The author in no way endorses peas. The author maintains no commitment to eat peas, grown in the garden or otherwise.