It's that time again: overnight it feels like I've lost control of the garden. Where did all those weeds come from? When did that shrub grow so huge? How, how is there still so much of the veg to "turn over?" It's time like these, it's important to take a deep breath, pour a cup of joe, and remind myself that, one way or another, little by little, poco e poco, it does (mostly) all get done.
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I've been concentrating on cleaning up dead wood and pruning the past few days. Yesterday, I took three big branches off a youngish silver maple that stands very close to the Folly Wall project. Those branches have been overarching the garden area and casting too much shade. Gone.
Then I cut down the two remaining substantial-sized paper mulberries in the Asian/Fairy Glen area. Only about 2 inches in diameter at the base; swabbed the stumps with RoundUp and also pulled out, cut down about a dozen wispy suckers. I don't want to jump the gun, but it looks like the end of years of battling that paper mulberry is finally coming to an end. I want to remain vigilant though because if even one sucker is allowed to grow, it will soon start to throw out roots that create more suckers and we're back where we started. If I can get the Fairy Glen cleaned out, then I'll concentrate more fully on the paper mulberries on the South Border.
I cleaned out a lot dead wood from the east (back side) of the row of arborvitae that stand between the east end of the house and the slope where the Grape Arbor and Fairy Glen are. That spot gets very little sun and the dieback was pretty impressive. Fortunately, most of the wood was so brittle I simply tossed it on the ground and walked over it: instant mulch. The bigger stuff went on the brush fence.
The Japanese Maple I moved last fall from the Below the Deck Garden to the South Border is doing well, lots of new leaves. I took out some expected die-back but the tree looks overall healthy. I'll keep a close watch on it this year.
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This morning I got all the blooming Garlic Mustard out of the Pond Circle's north side. I was very surprised and pleased to see that there is no blooming Garlic Mustard at all in the northern area of the Pine Gap and the new Glade area. I did a major clean out there last summer and it did a lot of good. I'm sure there's going to be more garlic mustard sprouting in there because of the seed bank in the soil, but at least I've definitely broken the cycle a bit and hopefully I can keep ahead of it.
Dug over another section of the veg and planted a short row of Russet potatoes. I thought my Russets had "chitted" (sprouted eyes) pretty well, but when I got into the middle of the bag, no sprouts. So I planted what had sprouted and brought the rest back in the house to sit and chit.
No sign of germination in the 2nd sowing of carrots. I'm going to have to research viability of carrot seed. I'm starting to suspect it's no good after 1-2 years and I think my seeds are pushing that envelope. Seems odd that the first seeding showed sparse germination but I did mix in a newer packet of seed with the older....maybe only the small amount of newer seed sprouted?
Looks like covering the strawberries was a good idea; all the blossoms look good and plants are untouched by frost/freeze. It went down to 29F a couple nights ago. (I learned that if the centers of strawberry blossoms are yellow, they are fresh and unpollinated. Brown, they are pollinated and will soon form berries. Black they are frosted/frozen and will not produce fruit.)
Not seeing many bees at all. I'll have to ask Julie what's up with her hives? I wonder if she would want to move a hive up here to my property?
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