At least I know why it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been cold and rainy….<\/p>\n
Friday we took the dangerous step of going to Lowe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s after work. We have a frightening ability to spend a disturbing amount of money there without even trying. Friday was, of course, no exception.<\/p>\n
We went to look at plants to replace the ones that died over the winter. There were not a lot of plants that died, but then I need only the flimsiest excuse to buy living greenery.<\/p>\n
We picked up a lilac that we put around the back of the house where the rental across the alley has a dusk to dawn light that shines in our windows. It should grow to a size that will, when it gets bigger, block out much of the light in the summer. At least that is the plan. <\/p>\n
I also found two rhododendrons that I liked, which is unusual, because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not typically fond of the state plant. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an understory plant really, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bit leggy and sparse. In the right setting it looks very nice, but that setting is not my yard. But the plants I found look far more like what is generally categorized as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Azalea\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with smaller, closely grouped leaves. The smaller of the two plants has very pretty dark leaves, which is why I liked it, the second plant has huge fuchsia flowers, which I quite liked. They remind me a bit of something that I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite place. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m hoping that they both flower this year, as both of the plants we chose had flower buds. The smaller plant went near the main walk, under the maple tree. I asked Michael if this would make it a pain for him to mow, and he said no, so that means that when he gripes I get to ignore him. The other went at the bottom of the hill, where the fence line will be extended<\/a> in the coming month.<\/p>\n Along the bottom of the hill we also moved the forsythia and the small lilac, because I realized that we planted them too close to the other shrubs. So we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re back to looking barren for now, but ONE day, it will be a nice hedge. One day. Also along the bottom of the hill I planted a peony, with the second (the package came with two) along the side where there is just bulbs. And I added a second clematis along the fence. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never had clematis before, and the other I planted late fall, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m curious to see how it will turn out. My hope is that it climbs and runs along the fence, but I just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. I also planted some of the gladiolus bulbs I picked up last month for some reason that had a lot more to do with winter ending and wanting to plant things than any particular fascination with gladiolas. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see how they turn out. If none of that works, then I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll look into climbing roses, which will do two things. First, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll look nice on the fence, and second they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll discourage people trying to climb over\/sit on the fence.<\/p>\n And, I finally took the poop that my co-worker gave me, and spread it around the lower part of the yard where my oh-so-polite neighbors tore up our yard last spring and have yet to repair the damage. Spread the manure and then spread some grass seed. Hopefully this will make that portion of the yard look a little better. The top part, that luckily isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t easily seen from the road, is still a tremendous mess. Not only did they not repair the yard, but when the put the soil back, all the topsoil went underneath, and we were left with nice, orange clay on top. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thinking that getting grass to come back is not going to be easy. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d really like to plant something along that portion of the fence, but not only is the yard a mess (and lacking topsoil), part of me keeps hoping that our neighbors will repair the damage they did.<\/p>\n I know, fat chance.<\/p>\n And I suppose that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about it for the garden update. Oh yeah, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve moved most of the plants outside. You would not believe how much space this opens up in the house. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kinda of nice to have so many plants inside when winter is it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s darkest, but come spring I need more space. So out on the porch they went. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still keeping an eye on temperatures, but there isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t anything that can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t handle the chill we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been having. So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got greenery outside, and new plants to watch all summer. Ah, the joy of spring!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At least I know why it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been cold and rainy…. Friday we took the dangerous step of going to Lowe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s after work. We have a frightening ability to spend a disturbing amount of money there without even trying. Friday was, of course, no exception. We went to look at plants to replace the ones that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-house-garden"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pefxA-2Q","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}