I worked in the garden a little yesterday. I really want to do a bigger project, like setting the stones I got last weekend, or lifting the pavestones of my footpath and putting some sand under them, but I’m still feeling pretty low on energy lately. I went out, thinking maybe I’d cut some branches back that were growing over the path. I did, and it was pretty successful:
I couldn’t cut the rose bush because it was blooming so beautifully. After this first flush of flowers is done I’ll trim it back as well. The green bush to the left is an Aucuba japonica. I like it for its shiny, leathery leaves. But I ended up trimming it a lot. It went from a ball shape to a half-a-ball shape. It should recover quickly. Aucubas are tough.
And I must log something in the memory archive. I was surprised this spring to see a palm tree seedling. It’s by my pond. My Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei) has survived many winters already, and blooms every spring, producing berries later in the summer. Some bird or other critter must’ve dropped a seed by the pond, and voila! I have a new baby palm tree. I will have to transplant it, but I didn’t do any digging yesterday, other than a bunch of weeding.
Here is the palm baby. The tall leaf is about eight inches long.
My school’s spring musical is happening this weekend. It’s “Fiddler on the Roof”. I went last night. I loved it! I wasn’t sleepy at all, even though it was WAY past my bedtime.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen “Fiddler on the Roof” before. I didn’t remember the story at all. But I did know the songs. All of them. Why is that? I remember singing “Sunrise, Sunset” for voice lessons in college, but why would I know the others? I knew them almost well enough to sing along. Is it from childhood? …Or did I once participate in a showing of this musical and now I’ve forgotten it? I’m completely puzzled.
My co-worker Debbie continues to work on the Middle School Meadow. She really wants to get some native plants going there for caterpillars and butterflies. I have to admit, I’m starting to think the grass will choke out any plants we put there. But Debbie is indefatigable.
Yesterday, I helped her weed-whack the grass. There were several non-grass things growing. Many of them were hard for us to identify. Some, we knew we had planted. Others looked like weeds. I tried to chop around the ones we decided we’d leave. Mostly it was daylilies and milkweed.
As I was packing to head home, I noticed how tired my arms were. And my hands were really weak and shaky. I think holding a gas-powered weed-whacker and swinging it around was secretly a lot of exercise. By the time I got home, I felt exhausted. Fortunately, I didn’t have an evening commitment last night. I tried to stay up until it was dark out. TV helped.
Last week, my trash can was weirdly emptied into a pile across the street. Yesterday was trash day again, and as I walked out to my truck in the morning, I glanced over at my trash can. It was empty again! I started to investigate further, and noticed other trash cans were empty too: the bank and my neighbor three houses up. My immediate next door neighbor’s whole trash can was moved across the street. Everything was moved left.
I guessed a few times last week why someone would do this, but I have a new guess: maybe they’re trying to help out the sanitation workers… Would it be easier if the trash was in fewer, larger piles? Would it be easier if it were all on one side of the street? Hmmm…
In order to avoid future incidents, I was thinking that maybe I should put the trash out in the morning instead of at night, but this happened in the morning. Here’s how I know:
It rained very heavily just before 5:30am. I almost thought it was hailing. At 6:05am, when I looked in the bottom of my open and emptied trash can, it was completely dry. Whoever moved my trash did it after that rain. Now I’m really curious. Not many people are up and out that early. And that’s a lot of physical activity for 5:30am. Maybe next week I’ll watch out my living room window to see who it is…
I’ve had a plastic shower curtain liner for a while now. Over time it has become stained with water and with that pink stuff that seems to grow around my drains. I tried washing it in the washing machine, but it tore. While I was at the store, I decided to go for a fabric liner. Since my bathtub has two exposed sides, I’ve used a fabric liner on the end for years. It also gets stained, but it is easy to wash. Fabric won’t tear in the washing machine, so it will last longer than the plastic liner. But it costs five times as much. Will it last five times as long as the plastic liner? That remains to be seen…
Wow – you see a palm tree seeding and I see something that looks like it should get pulled out.
I like the trimmed Aucuba japonica – it’s like a plant version of a geode! “Crack it open and see what’s inside!” Very cool.
I now have a rose bush that looks like yours. I was wondering what to do with the flowers after they bloom. Do I just wait until no more flowers are blooming and then cut it back a bit?
If your rosebush is a Knockout brand rose, it will continue to bloom without any pruning. You only need to prune it if it gets too big or if you don’t like the shape.
Have you drawn a map of your garden? If you did, you could claim that you did work, but it really wouldn’t be work. Oh, and I’d like to see it.
I haven’t done a map. I tried mapping your garden once, but it didn’t turn out very well.
For someone with low energy, you sure do accomplish a lot!! Way to go!
And I’m with Lauren. I wonder how many exotic plants I’ve accidentally pulled out of the ground. ( I’d also like to give a Shout Out to the critter … imagine that, you may owe a rabbit a Thank you)
Touche’ ! (…no…wait…he was a turtle, not a rabbit…)
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