Compost? Yeah, got that. Mulch? Check. A full truckload of mulch.
It seems like spring is here at last!
A truckload of mulch and 46 bags of mushroom soil SEEMED like a good idea at the time…
Well, there are other signs…
Tulips
Daffodils blooming in our fruit tree orchard.
I love this crabapple tree’s color.
We seem to have passed the cool, rainy weather and moved into the perfect spring combination. Warm days with temperatures in the 60s and 70s, cool nights in the 40s…oh, how I love this weather!
We’ve been working outside like crazy trying to take advantage of as many cool days as we can before Virginia’s blistering heat arrives with a bang and a thunderclap. We began by weeding and mulching all the gardens around the house. We moved several lilacs that grew from roots creeping under the landscape fabric, and dug out a weedy patch of the perennial garden that seemed to grow nothing but yarrow and clover. Both were banished to the woods to compost back to nature while we created a new “purple patch” of iris, lilacs and phlox, with some salvia and monarda added for summer color. If I can scrounge up some purple asters for fall color, I’ll add those too.
We next moved onto the island bed in the lawn. What a chore! Most of the lavender died from the bitter cold weather this winter, so I had to chop it back. Well, I look on the bright side. A few roots remained, and it will grow back. But more importantly, when you weed lavender, the spiny stems stick to your socks and clothes…and at least you smell nice as you pull needles from your skin.
After all this planting, weeding and mulching, it was time to add yummy compost to the soil. We bought in something like 46 bags of mushroom soil, a compost made in Pennsylvania from cow and horse manure, straw and hay, and other vegetative matter and used to grow mushrooms. It’s supposed to be super nutritious. We mixed two bags of mushroom soil with one bag of pure compost and then added it around the base of the fruit trees and to the vegetable garden beds. I estimated that I’d lifted 30 pound bags of compost at least 12 times on Saturday, a new personal best. I always develop nice triceps and biceps in the spring from all the “weight training” I do in the garden!
Lastly, we had to remove and replace the raised bed around the asparagus in the vegetable garden. Hubby joked that my book should be titled “Plan and (have your husband) Build a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden.” Well, is it my fault that I’m still useless when it comes to power tools? I did learn how to use the power drill this weekend, another first for me. It took us a long time to haul the cut boards into the vegetable garden and screw them into place.
When we went to pull apart the rotted lumber from the seven year old bed, it splintered into a thousand pieces on the short ends. The longer boards pulled off cleanly, but I managed to disturb a nest of plain old garden ants. These are the sweet, gentle ants I loved to watch as a child growing up in an urban environment. The kind that made big sand piles in the cracks in the sidewalks and managed to haul breadcrumbs twice their size down the holes. I’d watch them for hours as a kid. Well, when you disturb their nests, guess what? They’re not so sweet and gentle. What seemed to be a thousand ants SWARMED on the boards. I had on gardening gloves, but a few really angry ants ducked under the fabric and started biting me! I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to say, “Hey, I’m your friend here! I protect over zealous gardeners from killing your kin in the spring when you innocently swarm a peony plant. I never used a magnifying glass on you, and aside from an unfortunate incident in kindergarten involving a garden hose and an ant hill, I’ve never killed you guys. Leave me alone.” But they weren’t buying it. I had to squash a few. Sorry, fellas, but you bite or sting me and it’s all over.
Our new raised bed is in place. The ants retreated back to the soil.
I noticed that Lowe’s had all their summer annuals and vegetables out now. For the love of all that’s growing, may I suggest you DON’T buy them right now…wait two weeks. Just two weeks. My reason? We are still in danger of a spring frost. Tomato plants, impatiens, geraniums and all those pretty flowers you see in the stores now can’t stand a frost. If you plant them and the weatherman predicts a frost, you’re going to be scrambling to cover them with blankets and anything else warm you can find.
Instead, indulge your love of gardening now by taking time make lists of flowers you need. Plant lettuce and radishes – two great cool weather vegetables that will fill your salad bowl in May if you plant them now. Try carrots, beets and turnips, too. But wait a bit for the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. It’s only a few weeks, and after a long, harsh winter, what’s a few weeks of waiting?
Happy spring, happy gardening!
Pansies growing in my sidewalk.
NEWS from the Writer Front…
I am now a blogger for Virginia Gardener magazine! Some of you know that I already write their monthly “Ask the Expert” column for the print magazine and am a Contributing Writer to this wonderful publication. Starting today, I have an offshoot of this blog called Garden Joy on the State by State Gardening Guide blog. Check it out!
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