Time for the seasonal segments to slowly make their appearances. I might do a progress report on workout once the circumstances are back in my favor (which should be next week). For this weekend, it was all about gardening and probably so will some future weekends in May and June since we do have some big plans. I talked about them a little HERE. Hopefully I can keep up with these updates at least when I’m busy in the garden for the next month or two.
With that said, this weekend is about tidying up the garden. I’m not completely done and its going to be another week or so of just getting everything ready before we can get down to actual structural planning once we re-evaluate how everything is. As an afterthought, I should have done a before/after shot but oh well…what can we do now?
First Part: Front Yard
Here we go! The first task was to take out all the grass and weeds surrounding it which as you can see is mostly all gone now.
We had some torrential winds the day before so excuse my sad droopy tulips but if all goes well, they should bloom this week some time. I’ll post them on Instagram or something. My crimson star also made it out of the temperature dip last week. I have some yellow flowers that I haven’t quite figured out what it is yet coming out in the back and should bloom late spring.
The rose is also coming back to life as well as the summer geraniums and chrysanthemum variety (I suspect thats what it is since they came with the previous owners). I am hoping that my fall chrysanthemums are going to come back since they only did it for one of the batches and never did again and I can’t figure out if I’m doing something wrong or the weather is not working well for it. In any case, I might move something there from the backyard to fill in the space and just try it in another spot. Not photographed here is the garden in front of the front facade. One side is just ferns and bleeding heart. I did also tidy that up and add some top soil and trim up the fern since the temperatures did affect one side of it. With that side breaking off, its actually opened up a spot which I might finally plant some daffodils since they are my favorite flower in the world and I don’t have them in my garden at all.
On the other side, I’m waiting a little bit on my hydrangeas and other perennials that I planted last year to see whats going. The partial picture above shows the only thing there right now, which are more tulips. On the right, you can see the clean-up that still needs to be done. I’ll exhibit the finished product in the next update.
Part Two: Vegetable Garden Tidy-Up
For those new to the blog (and I know there’s been a few of you over the last year or so), my previous owners didn’t have much of a green thumb, or maybe they did but just wasn’t interested in it. Whatever the reason, when I got the house 4 years ago, the soil was horrible and the garden here was all grown with grass like the part where the hose and rhubarb is. After a summer of craziness, we managed to pull out all the grass for a decent plot and over the next three years, we just improved on it. But anyone who has dealt with grass removal knows that its not exactly going away because grass roots spread far away and they are resilient. So, thats what I did with the original plot and that is to clean up the dead annual veggies and take out all the grass.
Whats alive right now from last year’s additions is:
Blueberry #1
Blueberry #2
Herb: Lemon Mint
Herb: Italian Oregano
I’ve been trying to get herbs to grow but I never bury them deep enough or migrate them a little too late in the season. So its really nice to see them make it out alive. Which comes to our plans for this plot. Looking at the top picture, in the looking forward plans I mentioned in the previous post, the grass area is going to have all of it taken out which as you can see, I’ve started. I actually decided to jab it to aerate the ground a little and hopefully loosen the soil so its easier. We’re drafting out what we’d like to plant and see whats available at the garden centre we go to. However, we are still waiting to see if the ground cherry will come back as well as the asparagus (which is in its third year if it does and should technically be ready for harvest). Fingers crossed! I’m also hoping to get all that grass removed by the end of next weekend.
If that plot is in fact done and good for gardening, I may actually move the blueberries over, just in anticipation of how much space they may need, as well as ground cherry and keep it my “mini” fruit patch.
Third: Raspberry & Strawberry Patch
Excuse the mess in the front of the patch, I’ll talk about what I’m doing for the containers. As for this patch, there wasn’t much to do here. Just more of a progress report. I tidied up some weeds mostly. From this picture, its kind of given me the initiative to go take care of some of the dead branches. Strawberries are going to probably be the first to have any fruits since they are starting to have flowers bloom.
One of the old residents of this patch is this lily. It gets suffocated by the raspberry every year and still survives. The goal is to move it this year and as soon as possible before the raspberry gets too big. I have an idea to move it in somewhere in the front yard. Update next time! 
Aside from that, this fruit patch gets a ton of animals hopping and scurrying and flying by so we get weird flowers here all the time. Hence, these little calla lily looking plants which could be some shade plants as well. I’m waiting to see what it is. The first year we were hear, they brought over a sunflower. I don’t really mind because I can just migrate it somewhere else also, particularly perennials. Gotta love those neighorhood creatures, right?
Other Tasks in progress
What garden comes without weeding as the number one task? Of course, you could choose the lawn treatment path then you get someone else to do it for me. I’m not bustling in cash, in fact, I’m just swimming in loans so I’m the person who weeds all the time whenever I have time. With that said, between one task to the next, I just weed away hoping that little by little, it’ll help.
Aside from that, we have a few weekend trips in the works right now since for the above reason, we aren’t going away to any long vacations to save up for Hong Kong next year, hopefully. We’ve postponed it a few years already. In anticipation for that and the supposed incredibly hot summer we’re going to have (which hasn’t arrived yet), I’m working on some things that I looked at on Pinterest for container watering systems. I have tried the upside down wine bottle way. It works well enough and I’ll still do that for some of the pots but I’m trying out this water bottle way where there are holes poked on all sides and you fill it up from the top and its embedded inside the soil. In a long pot like this one, which I use for my leafy greens or herbs, I’m going to put two. Anyways, I’m trying to get some of the containers prepared in advance with partial soil in the next two weeks before I head out to the gardening center to have it all ready.
I am going to see whether water garden plants (like water lilies and those floating ones that the name escapes me now) are available this year. I’ve been hoping to have one in the yard so thats something else I’m looking at right now.
Thats it for this Gardening 2018’s first update!
Lots of research still 🙂
I’m hoping to have something like weekly updates if possible (or maybe vlog?)
Tranquil Dreams 