I want you all to memorize the title of this post: "Digging out the paper mulberries" because it will be the theme of this entire blog for probably the next couple of years. Oh my god. I decided that, despite a very light rain and heavy fog, I'd tackle the paper mulberry (otherwise known as Hell Tree) sprouts/suckers up in the Fairy Glen. I picked a spot and started digging, pulling, and lopping. The roots are anywhere from the size of yarn to maybe a bit bigger around than a garden hose. And they run EVERYWHERE. Some a few inches below the soil, others deep. Dig, pry, heave, pull, snip. Four hours of it, with a break for lunch. I think maybe a quarter of the way thru. The soul-killing truth is that I know, without doubt, that all these things will come back again. And again. And again. I've got to commit myself to an ongoing regime of destruction. Only if I can continually remove these sprouts and starve out the root system will I be rid of this monster. My immediate plan is to keep digging and pulling until I can't see any above ground. Then wait for warm weather and as soon as any start to emerge, hit them with Roundup (I'm thinking do about half with Roundup and try snipping off/digging out the other half to see which method works best). I sort of doubt the Roundup is going to do a whole heck of a lot because of the vast extent of the root system, but what the heck. I'll feel like I'm doing something.
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Trying an experiment to get some heat into the greenhouse. I saw this idea on a gardening video and have adapted it. I filled a wheelbarrow with chicken manure/straw and damp newspapers, sprinkled it lightly with water to moisten, then covered the top with a 2-3 inch layer of garden soil. Wheeled it into the greenhouse. As the manure, etc. begins to compost, it will give off heat and hopefully, I'll have a bottom heat source. I can place seedling trays directly on it and it may even give off enough heat to slightly warm the greenhouse. This is a version of the old "hot bed" that gardeners have used for centuries. The key is to get a big enough mass of composting material so that it will heat up. I don't think this would work with just a bucket of stuff, but I'm hoping a wheelbarrow load is enough. Plus, when it's used up, I'll have a load of nice compost to easily wheel out and dump on the garden.
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Finished the newly laid out path between the Storybook Garden and the Dry Garden/henhouse area, got a nice thick layer of woodchips down so that should be good to go. I'm hoping to some day (SOME DAY) get a paved path thru there, but for now, this is it.
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Also hoping to get outside today and mark some trees/branches with paint and do an inventory of what I need to cut down/remove with a chain saw. I think I've got 7 or 8 in mind, which makes renting the electric chain saw worthwhile. If I mark the trees, I don't have to do this right away, I can wait for a good weather day and run over to the hardware store. Won't forget what I wanted the saw for! I've got a lot of young Chinese Dogwoods to plant but I'd really like to get some crabapples...I don't want the expensive named varieties, it would be great if I could just dig out some seedlings from vacant lots down on P.town Road. Wonder who to ask for permission? For some reason, there's a huge patch of crabs and these trees flower beautifully in the spring and are loaded with fruit come autumn, both red and yellow fruits.
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Started some seeds (parsley, celeriac, coleus, cardoon). I don't have great hopes for the celeriac because the seed was old but we'll see. I've got some fantastic rooting results on the ornamental purple leaved sweet potato vines so I think I'll do a few more cuttings from those. As an experiment, I've taken a cutting from my sprouted edible sweet potato and stuck it in a bottle of water. If it roots, I may have a way to start more sweets. The box of small sweet potato tubers in soil on top of the cupboard is not showing any signs of sprouting yet, but the smaller tub that was started around Thanksgiving is up and growing like mad, as is the little "stray" tuber that somehow got laid on top of the dirt in a houseplant. It's vining all over the place (and provided the cutting for the water experiment). I always traditionally started my sweets in dirt in early January but I think I'll have to start them earlier; for some reason they just aren't sprouting like they used to (maybe a different variety of sweet has crept in?).
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signs of spring are starting to emerge: lots of little green daffodil noses peeking out, a few early species crocus blooming in the sheltered, south-facing Jungle Cliff garden, snow drops up and blooming: I'm happy to see that I must have finally got the right kind of snowdrops (thanks to Aspenhill!) that naturalize because I'm seeing definitely bigger patches (still small, but bigger!) here and there and I've also spotted snowdrops where I know I did not plant them, so the hens must have eaten seeds and "deposited" them for me. (I've got chicken-planted red tulips all over the place too, which are a nice surprise later in April/May.) Finally seeing some nice blooms on a couple of my Hellebores (again, thanks to Aspenhill's advice). Have NO IDEA where my foxtail lilies were planted in Fall of 2018, so also don't know if they've survived. I know they came up and bloomed in the Deck Garden last spring (Spring of 2019), but have since "lost" them. I really need to do better about marking/inventorying things, but then again, it's always a nice surprise to see something you forgot you had! (And conversely, if you forgot you planted it and it died, you'll never know and go about in blissful ignorance of your loss!)
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