Yard Work

**Zilla** · 03-08-2010, 02:17 PM

I've been waiting all winter to put my filthy, well used gardening gloves on and get busy out and the yard, but yet here I sit thinking about all the mess I need to clean up. I have sticks and small tree branches, everywhere.

From my window I can see Rhododendron flower buds that are just waiting for the first real warm day to pop open and over the past week or so, the forsythia and drawf Japanese maple are covered with leaf buds. The Weeping Cherry tree takes forever to leaf out and as soon as it does, the bugs attack the leaves.

I also need to cut the dead leaves off of all the ornamental grasses so the bases of them don't look ratty when the new leaves start to come in.

It's 52 degrees and the sun is out. I guess I need to suck it up, get dressed, grab some gloves, clippers and the wheel barrel and get to it. That and I'm tired of being in the house. I think my office shrank over night and that's saying something as it's one of the smallest rooms in the house.

Are there any other gardeners on board?

**Wild Turkey** · 03-08-2010, 02:21 PM

Im not so much of a gardener as the one who does all that type of crap, big pain but it was a relief to be outside getting some stuff done to the house after all that snow, we got enough to last 10 years this season for sure.

Its supposed to be just as nice out today, so I agree today is the day if you can manage it!

**annageckos** · 03-08-2010, 03:18 PM

There is snow still on the ground here and the tulips, and daffodils are sprouting. I need to get the dead stuff out of my garden and get the bulbs out that I didn't get to last fall. OOh, and start on the veggy garden too, the suger snap peas can go in soon..ummmm..

**Rue** · 03-08-2010, 03:26 PM

Our wee bit of snow is going rapidly...but gardening around here doesn't get serious until May.

But one thing I AM serious about is cleaning out the chicken coop...I don't remember our old coop getting this dirty...and it was about the same size with the same number of chickens...

**Taurus** · 03-08-2010, 03:35 PM

I did pretty much the same thing yesterday afternoon. The temps made it to 57 degrees f up here in VT. Not much growth yet, or signs of it. But it sure is time to start tapping those Sugar Maples if you haven't done so already and are planning on doing so.

Spring run off will start this week, slowly, which is a good thing. Up in the mountains (2,000 - 4,000ft), there is 6.5 to 7.0 inches of water in the snow pack. That's more than enough to fill our reserviors and keep them full until we're ready to use the water for generating electricity. I noticed the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center is forcasting below normal precipitation for VT during April-May-June. Good thing we have lots of water in the snow pack.

I've been keeping my eyes open for the return of the Robins, but haven't seen any yet. They should show up soon.

Originally Posted by Zilla

I've been waiting all winter to put my filthy, well used gardening gloves on and get busy out and the yard, but yet here I sit thinking about all the mess I need to clean up. I have sticks and small tree branches, everywhere.

From my window I can see Rhododendron flower buds that are just waiting for the first real warm day to pop open and over the past week or so, the forsythia and drawf Japanese maple are covered with leaf buds. The Weeping Cherry tree takes forever to leaf out and as soon as it does, the bugs attack the leaves.

I also need to cut the dead leaves off of all the ornamental grasses so the bases of them don't look ratty when the new leaves start to come in.

It's 52 degrees and the sun is out. I guess I need to suck it up, get dressed, grab some gloves, clippers and the wheel barrel and get to it. That and I'm tired of being in the house. I think my office shrank over night and that's saying something as it's one of the smallest rooms in the house.

Are there any other gardeners on board?

**Zilla** · 03-08-2010, 04:42 PM

While views such as this

are inspiring, there is only so much BS a person can put up with.

My clippers decided to call it quits while I was messing with the large forsythia bush near the driveway, so I figured I'd pick all the trash near the street.

In this day and age, one would think litterbugs would keep their trash to themselves, but no. Apparently my large garden in the front yard needed to be decorated with beer cans and bottles.

Then as I was cleaning out the other side, something started making all kinds of noise which kind of freaked me out only to discover it was a Mourning Dove flapping around on a branch that is covered with dead oak leaves that have yet to drop. The said dove was kind of enough to later follow me to the back yard and make its cooing noises as I tossed tree branches over the fence.

Then my bungahole neighbor decided he was going to hang around on his porch and yell. I have no idea who or what he was yelling about or at, and I really don't care. I promptly collected my stuff and disappeared to the backyard.

So I cleaned up all the sticks and branches. Trimmed the grasses with scissors. Yikes! One batch of Zebra grass has green shoots, so that is good. Thought about dragging out the rain barrel but decided it is too soon, so in a few weeks that can be put in place. And cleaned up all the trash so it doesn't blow back into the yard. Not bad considering I was only out there for a hour or so.

**Taurus** · 03-08-2010, 04:56 PM

My rhododendron and azalea are not that budded out yet. I'm probably about 10 days behind you. We had a bad wind storm a couple of weeks ago the burned both shrubs. I'm hoping they will recover and provide some blooms later this Spring. Yours look very healthy.

**BirdOfPray** · 03-08-2010, 06:47 PM

Definitely not a gardener, though I have my dreams and aspirations that keep getting put on hold for "someday." One of these years I'm at least going to get in a raised-bed vegetable garden.

However, this Saturday we (translate: my husband) did a lot of yard work. My role was supervising and keeping the toddler out of trouble. We had a red oak tree pop up in our front yard a year or two ago and I was really excited because I love red oaks. But, it's underneath our live oak and there's no way it would have worked out well. So we decided to do our best to transplant it to the backyard. My sweet husband practically drilled a hole through the limestone that passes for central Texas soil (seriously, 12" of heavy clay liberally sprinkled with rocks, then almost solid limestone the rest of the way). We should have bought dynamite instead of a shovel. The tree didn't dig up as smoothly as we had hoped (again thanks to the rocks), so we're not sure if it'll make it, but we did our best at least. It's now in the backyard and we planted it with compost mixed in with the soil around it and some mulch on top to help it out when it starts getting hot around here. I'm also planning to dedicate my old fish tank water to the tree, just for whatever extra nutrients it can get that way.

After that, he fixed the gatepost for the back fence where the morons who replaced our siding last year had broken it. I really should have called the siding guys back out and made them fix it, but I had already spent about 6 months calling and harrassing them to honor their warranty and replace the sections that were damaged by a hail storm in the spring. I've concluded the term "lifetime warranty" actually refers to the length of time it takes them to fix any problems. So I figured it would take at least three years to get them to do anything about damage they caused to my property, and since it was just a split piece of 2x4 it wasn't worth it.

Next we got all the shrubbery in the front yard pruned back and ready for the growing season, and probably just in time. We also got some of the mulch spread, but we've got some more of that to do yet -- one garden area out front and the area under the cottonwoods out back where grass doesn't really grow but weeds do. Might as well mulch it and see if that'll keep the weeds out. The lot behind us is undeveloped so everything starts back there and just creeps through the fence into our yard.

**Rue** · 03-08-2010, 08:17 PM

Originally Posted by BirdOfPray

... but I had already spent about 6 months calling and harrassing them to honor their warranty and replace the sections that were damaged by a hail storm in the spring. I've concluded the term "lifetime warranty" actually refers to the length of time it takes them to fix any problems. ...

Well, as I pulled into our driveway, I noticed that I have a chokecherry bush with a really bad case of black knot...now would be a good time of year to prune it out (before the emerging leaves hide the ugly stuff)...