Blooming Now: Jasmine and Witch Hazel

Besides the obvious crocus, my confederate jasmine and witch hazel are blooming away.  I spent a long time today trimming back the jasmine.  It roots where ever it touches down, and I don't want it to take over completely.  I was able to get a lot of the layers out of the base of the wall, but probably not all of them. This is something I'm going to have to keep after - more than one trimming a year.

Witch hazel

Confederate Jasmine. I think I like the sparser version like this.

Alleghany pachysandra

I also like the subtler signs of spring, such as the alleghany pachysandra above.  This is so much nicer than the generic japanese pachy.  It is less aggressive spreading, and has this lovely mottled foliage, most marked in the spring when it emerges so early.  This stuff is one of my disappearing / reappearing plants. It seems to have died the year I planted it, but two or three years later this appeared right where I'd originally tried to plant it. I guess it just took a few years to set down its roots before announcing itself.

Here is the crocus type that is the earliest of the ones I planted at the base of the corner wall.  I fixated on the "purple outside" description in the catalogue (no picture) and got this in a place I was intending for only blue crocus.  Luckily, the timing is usually such that these are mostly done before the blue ones really get going.

Forced to do Some Work

Because the wind knocked the plastic greenhouse off kilter and left it unstable, I was forced to go outside and do some work.  As it turns out, this has been a truly great weekend, the nicest so far, so this was not such a burden.

Inspecting the greenhouse was hazardous - not because of the cockeyed structure, but because there is a lot of dog poop that emerged when the snow disappeared.  The wind had also blown around my enormous (and now mostly empty) pot collection.  Miscellaneous debris, including leaves I thought were securely deposited in the the compost bin but weren't, was everywhere.  So in typical gardener fashion, I began fixing the shed by cleaning up the yard. And, in typical gardener fashion, one thing led to another and another.  I knew I needed help if I was actually going to get to the shed.  Luckily, help appeared, and a bunch of pruning got done as well as yard cleanup.

By the time I cleared enough of a passageway to get to the greenhouse itself, and then cleared out some of the debris all jumbled up inside the greeenhouse, I was exhausted.  Luckily, the structure itself is very light, and I simply picked it up and set it down again.  It is not yet fastened down, so I'm going to have to hope for light winds this week and fix it next week.

I did also get out to the front corner and did the cleanup I meant to do last December.

Because it's still February, it's not going to look that great.  Too much grey.  But at least now it looks cleaner. I left the Christmas lights out - they are solar and very festive when you come up the hill toward my house.  They'll go inside no later than daffodil time.

The Wind Did It

Lots of Big Wind as fronts come through. I always worry about the boat, but on my way out this morning I saw this:



It's about 15 or 20 degrees tilted, and about 18 inches up on the high side. So my weekend is all laid out for me. Spring cleanup of debris just so I can get to it, followed by repositioning it.

There are only four earth anchors screwed into the ground holding it, so not totally surprising. Just annoying.

iPhone uPdate

First Crocus

Blooming today- warm but blustery.




- iPhone uPdate

The Nicest Day So Far

Today was the nicest day so far this year. It was sunny, not too windy, and probably just over 40 degrees. In my backyard sunspot, the thermometer got up above fifty. Certainly, the sunspot was not representative, but it was very pleasant.

I actually got some work done outdoors, the first time this year (not counting snow shoveling or cleaning off the car or taking out the garbage). I spent only an hour or so, along the front west edge, cleaning up and trimming. This is something I ought to have done in November, but clearly a case of better late than never.  The corner is still buried in snow, so no progress there.  In fact, I still have the Christmas lights out.

The tree limb remains on the roof. I decided to call the guys that had done the hazard pruning and see if they will cut me some slack on the cleanup.  I expect a call back tomorrow.

There were signs of spring - the daffs have stuck their necks out. The heather is blooming. I do love DC - the winters are so very much shorter than Chicago.