Monday, November 15, 2010

Down & Dirty

On a beautiful, sunny Saturday, I finished plowing the vegetable garden.  Yesterday turned cloudy and damp, so the triangular flower bed beyond the garden had to wait.  Electric tiller + rain = dead gardener, so I took advantage of the rain and planted cover crops in the veggie garden, crimson clover and rye grass.  Then I sprinkled rye grass seed everywhere I still want lawn, an ever-shrinking area.  Now, I must figure out how to keep Bella out of the vegetable garden before that becomes crucial.
Also on Saturday, Bella met her new playmate, Amy, with whom she'll be spending every Wednesday and Friday, until Grandma comes back from Kentucky.  Amy is a Weimaraner who lives in Alcoa with Dustin, the larder roundsman at work.  Then, Bella and I went to Out of Eden, one of my favorite nurseries, and where I'd been told I could find a Crepe Myrtle.  I've become obsessed with having one after their amazing displays all over east Tennessee this long, hot summer.  They did have them; most nurseries here only get them when they are in bloom, when people are thinking of them, but now is the best time to plant them.  I picked a Tuscarora, a pink flowering variety with a papery-barked trunk.  It took me about 24 hours to decide where it would go.  The plan I made of my garden was not exactly to scale; everything I want in the backyard isn't going to fit, so this moved from the flower garden to where lawn once was.  Once again, I should have gotten a picture of this tree poking out the sunroof.  It's about 12 feet tall, and in the background, you'll see my teeny tiny Honda.  Bella had to sit in the back seat and got car sick all over it, which is why I didn't take the picture.  
  I planted daffodil and crocus bulbs all around the base.  Later, I planted gladiola bulbs in the front yard and iris bulbs between the butterfly bush to the right in the photo and the red bud just out of the photo.  LouAnn gave me the red bud last year when thinning out hers.  And then, I finally decided where the last three azalea bushes I bought a month ago were to go:  in the front yard, near the established azaleas. They're a different shade of pink, but divided by the climbing hydrangeas, so I hope they won't clash.
  No weaving this week, either!  My hands are so nasty from gardening and pickling beets, I probably would have stained anything I was working on, anyway!  But a beautiful weekend, very productive.
  Have a great week, full of what you like to do best!
Maggie

5 comments:

LA said...

Hey...do you want some more redbuds....or maples...or tulip populars???? I've got to get them out of my front yard!!!! You have to dig it yourself right now, but they're FREE! It's going to be a wonderful yard!

Tina J said...

Way to go Maggie! I think our creativity in one area enhances our creativity in others. I usually rotate what project I am working on, depending on circumstances. Each thing has it's season, and this beautiful weather won't last long!

roxie said...

What a rockin gardner you are!

Around here, tilling plus rain equals mud soup which hardens to solid claypan. We buy a lot of peatmoss in this area.

Bonnie said...

What a pretty yard you are going to have.

Theresa said...

Oh how wonderful that yard is going to be. Bummer about Bella getting car sick. My boys would have spent their time trying to pee on the tree in the car no doubt. Hard to convince them what's acceptable. I mean a tree is a tree!