Projects, big and small

Well, actually most of the projects I've addressed in the past ten days or so have been relatively small.  The biggest project in my household was launched by my husband: removing the weeds growing between the paving surrounding the house.  I remove weeds here and there all the time but only occasionally tackle an entire area.  In contrast, he approached the project like a military campaign.

This gives you some idea what we contend with.  These paving stones surround the entire house, make up both our back and side patio areas AND fill our driveway.

I'd estimate he's cleared more than half the paved area, scraping out the weeds by hand, vacuuming them up, then filling in the cracks with a special sand intended to seal them

My projects have been both smaller in scale and more varied.

The clumping Aloe 'Johnson's Hybrid'  (left photo) I planted at the edge of this bed adjacent to our small south side patio years ago looked alright when the dwarf Agonis flexuosa shrubs covered most of the bed but, once those shrubs were pared back, the Aloes just looked sloppy to me.  I dug them out and replanted the area with cuttings of succulent Aeonium 'Kiwi'  to extend the edging already in place to the right.  They'll take awhile to fill in.

The gopher that took up residence in an area of the front garden on the southwest side hasn't decided to leave of his own volition.  Following advice by some commentators, I tried filling his main tunnel with dryer sheets but that didn't work.  Still hoping to push him out rather than set traps, I'm trying two repellents, granules soaked into the ground and four solar-powered sonic stakes than emit 5-second pulses at 20-second intervals.  The stakes have been in place for a week now but I'm only on day 2 with the granules.  They're added at intervals in one area after another to "push" the animal to move along.  We shall see if the combined impact yields results.

Cool season flowers still occupy significant space in the raised planters that make up my cutting garden but, as the weather gets warmer, the seeds of my warm season annuals need to be sown.  Several dahlia tubers are already in temporary plastic pots and this week I resurrected the self-watering plastic tub I bought more than a decade ago to grow tomatoes in my old garden for use in starting sunflower and zinnia seeds.  At least one piece of the plastic tub was missing but I hope it'll serve its purpose anyway.  I noticed the first sunflower seed breaking the surface this morning.

I've planted a few things here and there elsewhere in the garden as well.  Clockwise from the upper left: sunflower seedlings coming up through flats laid over the soil to protect them from critters; Ammi majus 'Dara' picked up on a whim on a brief stop at a nursery to hand off plants to a friend; and Lavender 'Anouk', a 'Purple Beauty' pepper, and an 'Early Girl' tomato picked up on my visit to Armstrong Garden Center 3 weeks ago.

In addition, I've been on a tear deadheading and cleaning up the garden.  Spent succulent flowers were a major focus this week.  The bees love the flowers of Aeonium haworthii 'Kiwi' and 'Kiwi Verde' but the top-heavy stems had toppled all over the garden and most of the flowers were looking scruffy so it was time to move on. 

I didn't take an "after" photo of the 'Kiwi Verde' succulents but this before shot taken in early May gives you an idea of what I started with.  These succulents are spread all over my garden.

I also cleaned up the front bed torn asunder during last year's remodel.

Here it is, ready and waiting to be planted.  All that was missing was plants to fill the space.

Those arrived at last, late this afternoon.

So I'll be spending Saturday planting.  I hope you find something pleasant to occupy your time this weekend too.



All material © 2012-2020 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party