GBE 2: Make a List - Gardening Dreams

It's 70 degrees and sunny here in Upstate New York. And it is only mid-March. As these days of sun and heat descended upon us, I kept realizing how much of a mess my yard was. After Dad died last year, I didn't feel much like working in the yard. And unfortunately, it shows. These sunny days made me dream of having time to dig in the dirt in my yard. I even bought seeds just over a week ago, as I dreamed of getting started.

The irony is, now I have the time to work in my yard this week. It is sunny, pushing 80 degrees, and I am home from work for 5 days. But I am home because I have an injured leg. Yes, the klutz that I am, I fell and sprained/pulled the joints and muscles in my left leg. I am supposed to be on crutches. but don't inside the house. It is quite difficult to bend down, let alone try to work in the yard. So, here I am sitting outside in my lawn chair, getting a tan, in MARCH, and just thinking about everything I could still get done.

So, what do I want to accomplish this year in my yard? It isn't big, but I have a million ideas....

1. Redo the veggie garden.


In trying to pay homage to my mother's farmer roots, I started a small vegetable garden a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, it is only about two to three feet wide and runs along my short driveway. When I first had the idea, my neighbor was going to share his extra strip of grass along his driveway, so that there was more space and we could share. But then he changed his mind when I started it up. I still want to convince him to let me use the land, but I doubt that will happen.

It needs to be edged again, to distinguish it from his grass. And this year I need to remember to put back up the little white fence that I had purchased two years ago. That way, it is obvious where to mow. Grass is less likely to merge with my bean plants, etc.

And what to plant in it? I almost always do peas and beans. I have dreams of doing squash, melons and cucumbers. If I can get them planted early enough, it can still work. But with this much heat so early in the year, I worry about trying peas. We shall see. And yes, one of these years I will look into square foot gardening.

Tomato plants are always in pots along the driveway. This year I need to remember to only put one plant per pot and hope that they grow better. And perhaps I can start earlier. Having to take care of Dad last year, and the subsequent funeral and cleaning out of the house, kept me in Ohio until the third week in June. I was late getting in anything, even though I got all of my plants for a good price. I definitely want to try a large variety of tomatoes again.

I long to learn how to grow more things in the pots. I want to be a more self-sustained home in the summer. But, I also live in the city. I am lucky I have space to garden, at all. I need to remember my limitations and just get down the Public Market more frequently.

2. Condense pots.


I have a zillion pots. When our local Wegmans was getting rid of their flower department, they were selling their plastic black pots for 25 cents apiece. I bought dozens of them. I figure for a small investment, I could stack them up in my garage. That way, I would have plenty of pots to give away as gifts and to slowly replace current pots as they broke. This means I also now need to go through recycle all of the pots that are currently broken. I have to let go of my OCD about which plants go into which pots and just make do with what I have. Plus, it will tremendously clean up the back porch area. I live on a corner, so there is no hiding anything in the backyard.

I am also ashamed to admit that a couple of them have perennials and roses still in them that have not yet been planted. As they are all starting to grow again, I am reminded that they need to get into the ground, already.

3. Clean up the roses.


My poor rose bushes have been neglected. They take so much time and energy. Between the sadness of last summer, and a physical condition that resulted in minor surgery the previous summer, I haven't taken as good care of them as I normally would. They all desperately need to be trimmed, which will have to wait until after they bloom. I also need to dig out the edges again. The strip that serves as a border between my yard and my neighbor's yard needs to all be connected into one large bed and then mulched. It will make it easier for the man to mow and just be and look better.

My mini rose bed has some new, strange things growing in it since last year. And my plastic birdbath that I have had for 10 years (that my father bought me) finally bit the dust this winter. I need a replacement of sorts. It just added some depth and different texture to my bed.

4. Clean out perennials.


When I put in the perennial bed seven years ago, I never dreamed it could fill in so much. I dug up the space between the sidewalks that lead to the front door and the side door. It's on a slight hill and was just a royal pain to mow. Plus it was just the perfect location for a large perennial bed. I have a bench in the center of it, so you can sit and reflect. Or, for right now, it has an old rusted out coal tin that serves as an annual pot sitting on it. The stones and path all came from my place in Ohio. My father helped me put in the bed and graciously carried all of those stones from Ohio to New York for me. (They will be hard to leave behind.)

Over the years, the perennials have naturally gotten much larger. Flowers like the Shasta daisies, coneflowers and columbine have taken over the bed. What used to be an organized mess is just a mess. And they have all jumped over the sidewalks to the small framing beds that used to just be bulbs and annuals. I'm sure my mailman is cursing me because he can no longer get up the sidewalk without brandishing a weapon to move the overgrown tall flowers. It's time to pare back.

5. Figure out something with the front bed.


That front bed has been the bane of my gardening existence as long as I have been here. It faces the north, which makes growing difficult. Plus, I get a lot of runoff from my roof on that bed, now. It's gorgeous in the spring, as all of the primroses and bulbs bloom. Eventually the hostas come in. I also have a lot of lilies. But those stupid beetles shred them every year and I can't keep up.

I used to have a gorgeous "Japanese rose bush" in the center. It grows large yellow flowers that look like roses, and only blooms when it is cool. It was overgrown and I had been told to treat it like a rose bush. So, in the summer of 2010, I cut it down to the ground. That was a big mistake. Now it just grows sporadically wherever its shoots have gone. Perhaps I could dig those up and replant them back in the middle again. I have to figure something out, because it doesn't look good.

The whole thing also needs to bed edged again, both with a spade and with some pretty annuals. I usually try to put impatiens out there. I will have to also check my rock collection to see if I can edge things. I just may have enough, between rocks I collect while hiking plus the ones I have from the beaches in Boston.

6. Paint.


Every year I say I am going to repaint the wooden steps and whatchamacallits that are under the porches. They have been peeling for a few years. The problem is, it is best to do so in the spring before the plants get too big. And by the time I have the time to do it, I can't reach the wood anymore. It detracts from the garden. But it is on the list, so that one of these years I will do it.

7. Clean out hidden weeds.


Along the side and back of my garage are tons of overgrown weeds. I try to hack them down. But I also have a lot of weed trees that need to be cut down. It is difficult to maneuver in those areas, but again needs to be done.

8. Make pots.


My favorite part of gardening is the creation that goes into making those pots. I like mine better than the ones you find in the stores that are premade. Mine are more unique and original. I come up with combinations that people wouldn't normally do. I am complimented on them all the time. And dammit, it is the one thing that I know I do well. They are just expensive to make. I am hoping that I can find a way to still sneak in a couple this year, though. They are so beautiful and add year-round color. And they are great to photograph, so that I can pretend I am going to paint them some day.

So yeah, just a few things need to be done. I am very tempted to try to scoot along on my bum. But because the injury is to the back of my upper thigh, it probably isn't a very smart idea. We shall see. :-)

Lost and Found in the Dirt

I haven't had a chance to play in my own garden, yet. Dad got sick and went into the hospital in April. He just passed away on June 2nd. I feel like I have lost a lot of valuable time in my garden thus far. I know that I have missed my peonies and some roses. My trips home cost me glimpses of some tulips. But that is okay, because I found a new level of understanding with my father as I spent time with him in the end.

My father is mostly responsible for my love of gardening. I used to sit alongside him as he created his gardens at our house and store. I also helped Mom with her vegetable garden. I learned a lot by watching him and by discussing my own gardening adventures with him. Dad was always amazed at how much I would learn and then how much I was able to teach him.

My father was also a great collector of books. Over the years he invested in several high quality series. I am unable to take every one of his gardening books, but I am taking the ones that he designated for me.

As we have been cleaning out the house, I also came across a bunch of binders that were created by my great-grandmother. She was also an avid gardener and liked to create scrapbooks. She created dozens of scrapbooks about all kinds of flowers. My father always wanted me to have those as reference, too. But I just don't have space for them all. I feel like I am losing a bit of family heritage by leaving those behind. I also know that I will find a new part of the legacy as I continue my gardening exploits.

I also feel like I have a lost a lot of myself over these past several months, with so many significant losses in my family. I long to go home soon and to find myself again, by playing in my yard and digging in the dirt.

Expectations of the Yard

Every year I make these grandiose plans for my gardens. And in the past I have been able to carry many of them out. I like to add a few perennials to spice up the old beds and to slowly fill in new ones. I fill my front steps with my own creations in pots. I fill the narrow vegetable garden strip next to my driveway as well as numerous pots. I relish in digging my hands in the dirt as I transfer my stress and worries. But my gardening expectations have had to switch around due to circumstances out of my control.

Last year I had the same big plans for the yard. I got a little delayed in starting the veggie garden because of working. I had the girl I babysit for help me hoe the bed and mix in the compost. We even started planting together. I love to plant with kids and to pass on the knowledge and legacy left to me from my great-grandmother through my parents.

I had been battling recurring cysts since March and was often in pain. I figured if I took it slow, I could still get in a lot of planting. But then the girl and I went hiking and one of those cysts burst. I wasn't in immediate danger and my surgery was scheduled six weeks out. But I was in a lot of pain. Slower movements meant less ability to work and many of my days were spent either sitting and reading or sitting and writing or sitting and tutoring. I managed to squeeze out a handful of tomatoes, beans, and peas and plant a few annuals, but that was it.

After my surgery, I had a long healing process, but still managed to get out and plant a few hundred bulbs. New expectations of a great yard were born.

This past April, my life changed forever. My mother had to go into a nursing home for her Alzheimers. My father, who had fallen and hit his head when out and about getting Mom situated, finally sought help for his headaches when bronchitis overwhelmed his COPD. He had to have brain surgery and is still hospitalized and relatively nonresponsive. Now instead of playing in my own yard, I have to spend a lot of time at the hospital and talking to doctors, and yes, trying to make my living. I had purchased sixteen tomato plants in April, but they are still sitting and waiting to be planted. The only peas I am going to get are the seeds that randomly started growing this year after not germinating last year. My bulbs were beautiful but I don't know if/when anything else will get done. The weeds are starting up again.

I have a friend helping me mow the lawn, because I am allergic to the freshly cut grass. I am sure he will help me with the weeding. I guess my expectations this year need to simply become maintenance of what I have and I will try again next year.

GBE 2 Challenge

Yes, it is another blogging challenge. Now that I have finally completed the April challenge (by May 22nd), I can start to think about the next ones.

GBE2 is a revival of an old blogging challenge that had been on MySpace. It stands for Group Blogging Experience. Bloggers who participate in the group are given a weekly prompt that they must somehow incorporate into their blogs. You do not have to participate every week.

I have no idea if any of the prompts will ever fit in with the gardening theme, but you never know! So, I am going to leave the option available for this blog and we shall see what happens. Stay tuned for the tag GBE2!