Saturday morning there were puddles in the driveway. The storm Friday evening left us with plenty of water in the soil, so no digging in the Big garden could be done.
I have no shortage of flowerbeds desperately needing attention, as most got none at all last year. I selected the East Shed because at 6:30AM it was just getting sun and would be just right to work in, temperature wise.
I started at the south end and removed the, literally, carpet of tiny weed seedlings lining the entire garden. Once I got a 4’ section done, I put down topsoil where it had been removed or compacted last summer.
I had pruned the 7 Sisters rose and found a nest in it. This was new because my helper friend had taken all the canes out of the siding trim a month ago.
Then I made new bulb markers and notes about the plants and moved to the next section. This garden was one of the few not torn up by the construction. I’d not had to move any plants, so no transplanting was needed. It will need to be planted once I’ve hardened off the seedlings I started.
Once it was all done I put down Espoma BulbTone and FlowerTone and made new markers for the plants . I didn’t realize until later that I had not updated the map for this garden. I’ll have to do that Sunday morning.
The little bed at the north end of this garden held flowers from when my son was little and had a garden. It now only has 1 left, the purple loosestrife. The others I’ve put in are columbine, balloonflower, and Sweet William.
It took me 5 hours to finish this garden. I planned to start the Old North garden after lunch. It was a much smaller garden. During the time I worked on the East Shed garden I discovered it was a robin that had built the nest. She, of course, was not happy I was there.
After lunch I got started on the Old North garden. My helper friend and I had replaced the edging where it had been torn out last summer. I weeded more of those tiny seedlings out of this garden and then brought back some of the transplants from the Big garden.
The transplants:
L – R: Lily of the valley, 3 clumps; astilbe, American ginger, lesser celandine
I added 5 daffodils to fill in holes, from pots in the Big garden
The daffodil row with new markers
I made plant notes but forgot to make new plant markers, except for the daffodils. I’ll have to do that Sunday morning also. I put down more BulbTone and FlowerTone in this garden. It took me 3½ hours to do this garden.
The gas bottle is supposed to move to the east side of the addition. It was supposed to move 6 weeks ago but the plumber backed out. Not sure when it will move, but the garden will change again when it does.
The robin was on her nest after supper when I looked so I didn’t disturb her too very much.
Sunday it will be dry enough to start in the Big garden removing the next strip of weeds.