Slowly clearing for good plants...
Righteous Horticultural Justice has been served. Mostly.
Yesterday was part 1 of the Battle of the Wintercreeper. Beautiful day, post-dentist, lovely motorcycle ride, and lunch, I descended upon the rock wall bed by the driveway. I vowed that the wintercreeper would meet its end. The poor white azalea that it is trying to eat, unfortunately, there is no saving... If I ever had my own nursery (noooo... not gonna happen...), there would be a short list of plants that no way, no how, don't care how many customers request them, that I simply would not carry. Wintercreeper is pretty high on that list.
I think I did OK. I went from this, a little over a year ago to the photo in this post. LOTS of cutting and pulling and I managed not to go tumbling backwards over the 4' wall into the driveway and landing on my head... Go me! More today, because we are currently out of space in the trailer. Today we will be hauling one load of brush (including the forsythia branches that I cut last year) to the yard waste pile at the dump, and returning to finish the job, I hope. The plan after things are mostly cleaned out is to get a 1/2 yard (or more) of some good loam, and bring the soil level up to something usable. Things settled in 15 years, I think, and if I don't add something, anything I put in that bed will just be buried. Also, hoping a good 8-12" of loam will slow the re-emergence of raspberries, sumac, and wintercreeper from the roots that I can't pull or dig.
Lots of leaves to rake too... I hurt now, a bit. Gonna be sore tomorrow, still. Lovely weather today, to hopefully finish (or at least make more progress on) this little Project.
Good things: My two 'Green Lotus' Peony, 'Time after Time' hydrangea and 'High Voltage' gorgeous yellow rose that I planted last year are alive and happy! As are the 2-for-$5 peonies that I bought at WalMart, which I had long given up for dead last year. They are tiny, but emerging.
We also have a screen door for the patio now! YAAAAY! I had finally had enough, and decided yesterday morning that I wanted to open the door to the roof, darnit. So I called Home Depot, the very helpful fellow assisted me in figuring out what kind of door we have, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kurlon arrived home yesterday evening with one lovely sliding patio screen door. Easiest installation I've ever seen, and we now have lovely, lovely airflow. Will probably have to get a plastic protector so kitty claws do not mar the bottom part, just in case... the boys are good, but who knows what happens when birdies or moths show up on the roof.
Sad things: I killed one of my phoebes yesterday. Not on purpose. But I had left the garage door open, because I was doing things... I think it must have flown in and run into the wall, or something, because I found it, neck broken, and still a little warm... poor little thing. I buried it in the front open woods, under the tiny little Serviceberry. It will have white flowers soon, and is a good resting place. I heard the mate (? another pheobe, at least) calling this morning, so all is not lost... I like to encourage the phoebe, though, because they eat bugs. Specifically flies. And my arms are kinda one big blackfly bite at the moment. Aieee!
Yesterday was part 1 of the Battle of the Wintercreeper. Beautiful day, post-dentist, lovely motorcycle ride, and lunch, I descended upon the rock wall bed by the driveway. I vowed that the wintercreeper would meet its end. The poor white azalea that it is trying to eat, unfortunately, there is no saving... If I ever had my own nursery (noooo... not gonna happen...), there would be a short list of plants that no way, no how, don't care how many customers request them, that I simply would not carry. Wintercreeper is pretty high on that list.
I think I did OK. I went from this, a little over a year ago to the photo in this post. LOTS of cutting and pulling and I managed not to go tumbling backwards over the 4' wall into the driveway and landing on my head... Go me! More today, because we are currently out of space in the trailer. Today we will be hauling one load of brush (including the forsythia branches that I cut last year) to the yard waste pile at the dump, and returning to finish the job, I hope. The plan after things are mostly cleaned out is to get a 1/2 yard (or more) of some good loam, and bring the soil level up to something usable. Things settled in 15 years, I think, and if I don't add something, anything I put in that bed will just be buried. Also, hoping a good 8-12" of loam will slow the re-emergence of raspberries, sumac, and wintercreeper from the roots that I can't pull or dig.
Lots of leaves to rake too... I hurt now, a bit. Gonna be sore tomorrow, still. Lovely weather today, to hopefully finish (or at least make more progress on) this little Project.
Good things: My two 'Green Lotus' Peony, 'Time after Time' hydrangea and 'High Voltage' gorgeous yellow rose that I planted last year are alive and happy! As are the 2-for-$5 peonies that I bought at WalMart, which I had long given up for dead last year. They are tiny, but emerging.
We also have a screen door for the patio now! YAAAAY! I had finally had enough, and decided yesterday morning that I wanted to open the door to the roof, darnit. So I called Home Depot, the very helpful fellow assisted me in figuring out what kind of door we have, and
kurlon arrived home yesterday evening with one lovely sliding patio screen door. Easiest installation I've ever seen, and we now have lovely, lovely airflow. Will probably have to get a plastic protector so kitty claws do not mar the bottom part, just in case... the boys are good, but who knows what happens when birdies or moths show up on the roof.Sad things: I killed one of my phoebes yesterday. Not on purpose. But I had left the garage door open, because I was doing things... I think it must have flown in and run into the wall, or something, because I found it, neck broken, and still a little warm... poor little thing. I buried it in the front open woods, under the tiny little Serviceberry. It will have white flowers soon, and is a good resting place. I heard the mate (? another pheobe, at least) calling this morning, so all is not lost... I like to encourage the phoebe, though, because they eat bugs. Specifically flies. And my arms are kinda one big blackfly bite at the moment. Aieee!
