Question: What do I have in common with a crack addict, an alcoholic and a gambler? The answer: Addictions. I am going to confess to everyone that, yes, I, too, have an addiction. I feel and know what it is like for the crack addict to want/need that next fix, for the alcoholic to drool waiting for his next drink and the gambler who is all consumed about when and how to place the next bet. Mine, is Spring and getting dirt under my nails! Bad, huh?!?! – take me away now!!
I get a craving, a bad, bad craving once the snow starts to melt and Spring is on the forefront. There is a storm brewing inside and it is waiting to explode. I love to be out in my gardens, (that is unless it is 110 degrees outside and new congregations of weeds have moved in to greet me) They can sing their hallelujahs somewhere else because I absolutely hate weeds. But yet I certainly seem to still have a little place in my heart for them. Take yesterday, for example. One of my new beds got ahead of me – okay, a disclaimer here, there are more like three beds, but yesterday I had one bed that I wanted to concentrate on. Anyway, before I could get it mulched, a new village of weeds had sprung up. I am sure they moved across town from the last bed I cleaned out and thought this looked like virtuous ground to hang their hats. I let them for a week or so and then it was time to Clean Up Dodge! Marshall Dillon would have been proud of me.
I had gotten back from helping plant flowers/perennials on the graves, mowed the yard, needed more gas to do the rest of the farm, and decided before I ran to town to get gas, I would tend to Bed #2.
I know what you are thinking. Why does she call it Bed No.2? Simple, my dear Watson. Last Fall I dug up three of my back yard flower beds – all three were looking pretty pathetic. So I had Bob roto-till them up and I planted between 250-300 tulips, allium and muscari bulbs. This Spring, I am happy to report, they all came up.
The beds are distinguished as follows: Bed No. 1 is my oblong 30 ft. x 8 ft. bed running north/south along the west end of the back yard. It is individualized by the colors in the pink/purple/lavender families.
Bed No. 2 (my project yesterday and today) is an oval shaped bed approximately 15 ft. x 12 ft. running north to south on the east end of the back yard. Its makeup are colors of red, white, blue and yellow accent.
And, Bed No. 3 is an oblong bed along the fence line of the south end of the back yard approximately 15 ft. x 8 ft. running east to west. This bed is pronounced by colors of yellow, orange, salmon, and apricot. Now you will understand my madness when I talk about my beds in the back yard.
Back to Bed No. 2. I decided this was to be my bed of choice for the day to clean up. It already contained some exotic lilies that I had planted a couple years earlier that I left in there last Fall along with the tulips. After my birthday, I put in the following plants that I received from Casey/Nika and Brady/Jenne for my birthday: Annabelle Hydrangea (white), two Longsfield Twin day lilies (red/yellow), and Hot Papaya coneflower (red).
Now I needed to weed around those and the tulips, so I pulled out my little cooler that I use as my stool which also contains my gardening tools and went to town "cleaning up Dodge." What a wonderful feeling that is once you have accomplished something like weeding it out completely! Euphoria sets in . . . along with an aching back. Next, the plan of action called for running to town to get gas for the lawn mower and making a trip out into the country about 5 miles from town to a great nursery called The Salad Garden to see what other perennials I could find and add to my beds.
Pongo and I jumped in the car and headed off to the Land of Oz. I needed a fix and I needed it quick and now!! And, oh what a fix I got! Visions of sugar plums could not have been sweeter than what I saw. After a careful and meticulous scan of the inventory, I grabbed a wagon and started picking up what I wanted, concentrating carefully on what each bed needed and already had. In the end, I walked out with the following for each bed.
Bed No. 1 already had a Mistical Pink Mist coneflower, three Cote de Azure Asiatic lilies (purple), Meringue coneflower (green), Rose Returns daylily, two Pink Double Delight coneflowers, and three Oriental Lily mix daylilies (purple/pinks). I picked up two Wine ‘n Roses Wiegelas (deep pink flowers w/dark purple foliage), two Pow Wow Wild Berry coneflowers (hot pink), two Obliqua Pink Turtle Heads, and three Wartburg Star Hardy Asters.
Bed No. 3, already had: three Cappuccino Tango lilies, Limelight Hydrangea (lime green), Sundown coneflower. I chose three Sundown coneflowers (orange). Notice the slip-up here! Yes, I just bought three more of what I already had – the Sundown. But these are so pretty, that won’t bother me a bit. I always say that you should plant in groups of three, so one extra is not going to hurt. It will just add to the beauty!
And for Bed No. 2, my current project, I opted for: two Fireworks Fountain Grass (burgundy striped), two Lo & Behold Blue Chip butterfly bushes, Songbird Bunting Columbine (blue), Songbird Goldfinch Columbine (yellow), Karl Forester Feather Reed Grass (white) and a lime green Heuchera. The bed also already had six Exotic Mixed Lilies.
As soon as I got back from the nursery and after getting gas, I unloaded the car and set off to position my plants. Once I had them situated, I dug into Bed No. 2, as I wanted to get this one finished off as best I could. With the plants in, I could now see where I still had areas that needed planting, but since it was starting to get dark, I figured I would have to mulch in the morning and that night I would have sweet dreams of what other plants I wanted to put in this bed.
Today we were planning on going to the Green County Dairy Breakfast, unless it was raining. I decided that I better get an early start outside because if we went and in order for us to get there in time before they finished serving, I would have to be in the barn by 7:00. So I headed outside around 6:00 to do the mulching on Bed No. 2. I pulled the skidloader out and could feel that rain seemed imminent. I called Bob and asked him what he wanted to do. We decided with it looking like rain, we would forego the Dairy Breakfast but would do some errand running instead. Okay, that left me a little more leeway on my morning.
I scooped up a big load of mulch and as careful as you can be with a skidloader full of mulch, headed into the back yard, hoping not to do too much damage to the grass along the way. Two skidloader buckets later and a lot of shoveling and forking later, I am done mulching. And, I have to say it looks marvelous. As you can see, it even now has some visitors -- my garden gnomes have found a new home.
I get a craving, a bad, bad craving once the snow starts to melt and Spring is on the forefront. There is a storm brewing inside and it is waiting to explode. I love to be out in my gardens, (that is unless it is 110 degrees outside and new congregations of weeds have moved in to greet me) They can sing their hallelujahs somewhere else because I absolutely hate weeds. But yet I certainly seem to still have a little place in my heart for them. Take yesterday, for example. One of my new beds got ahead of me – okay, a disclaimer here, there are more like three beds, but yesterday I had one bed that I wanted to concentrate on. Anyway, before I could get it mulched, a new village of weeds had sprung up. I am sure they moved across town from the last bed I cleaned out and thought this looked like virtuous ground to hang their hats. I let them for a week or so and then it was time to Clean Up Dodge! Marshall Dillon would have been proud of me.
I had gotten back from helping plant flowers/perennials on the graves, mowed the yard, needed more gas to do the rest of the farm, and decided before I ran to town to get gas, I would tend to Bed #2.
I know what you are thinking. Why does she call it Bed No.2? Simple, my dear Watson. Last Fall I dug up three of my back yard flower beds – all three were looking pretty pathetic. So I had Bob roto-till them up and I planted between 250-300 tulips, allium and muscari bulbs. This Spring, I am happy to report, they all came up.
The beds are distinguished as follows: Bed No. 1 is my oblong 30 ft. x 8 ft. bed running north/south along the west end of the back yard. It is individualized by the colors in the pink/purple/lavender families.
Bed No. 2 (my project yesterday and today) is an oval shaped bed approximately 15 ft. x 12 ft. running north to south on the east end of the back yard. Its makeup are colors of red, white, blue and yellow accent.
And, Bed No. 3 is an oblong bed along the fence line of the south end of the back yard approximately 15 ft. x 8 ft. running east to west. This bed is pronounced by colors of yellow, orange, salmon, and apricot. Now you will understand my madness when I talk about my beds in the back yard.
Back to Bed No. 2. I decided this was to be my bed of choice for the day to clean up. It already contained some exotic lilies that I had planted a couple years earlier that I left in there last Fall along with the tulips. After my birthday, I put in the following plants that I received from Casey/Nika and Brady/Jenne for my birthday: Annabelle Hydrangea (white), two Longsfield Twin day lilies (red/yellow), and Hot Papaya coneflower (red).
Now I needed to weed around those and the tulips, so I pulled out my little cooler that I use as my stool which also contains my gardening tools and went to town "cleaning up Dodge." What a wonderful feeling that is once you have accomplished something like weeding it out completely! Euphoria sets in . . . along with an aching back. Next, the plan of action called for running to town to get gas for the lawn mower and making a trip out into the country about 5 miles from town to a great nursery called The Salad Garden to see what other perennials I could find and add to my beds.
Pongo and I jumped in the car and headed off to the Land of Oz. I needed a fix and I needed it quick and now!! And, oh what a fix I got! Visions of sugar plums could not have been sweeter than what I saw. After a careful and meticulous scan of the inventory, I grabbed a wagon and started picking up what I wanted, concentrating carefully on what each bed needed and already had. In the end, I walked out with the following for each bed.
Bed No. 1 already had a Mistical Pink Mist coneflower, three Cote de Azure Asiatic lilies (purple), Meringue coneflower (green), Rose Returns daylily, two Pink Double Delight coneflowers, and three Oriental Lily mix daylilies (purple/pinks). I picked up two Wine ‘n Roses Wiegelas (deep pink flowers w/dark purple foliage), two Pow Wow Wild Berry coneflowers (hot pink), two Obliqua Pink Turtle Heads, and three Wartburg Star Hardy Asters.
Bed No. 3, already had: three Cappuccino Tango lilies, Limelight Hydrangea (lime green), Sundown coneflower. I chose three Sundown coneflowers (orange). Notice the slip-up here! Yes, I just bought three more of what I already had – the Sundown. But these are so pretty, that won’t bother me a bit. I always say that you should plant in groups of three, so one extra is not going to hurt. It will just add to the beauty!
And for Bed No. 2, my current project, I opted for: two Fireworks Fountain Grass (burgundy striped), two Lo & Behold Blue Chip butterfly bushes, Songbird Bunting Columbine (blue), Songbird Goldfinch Columbine (yellow), Karl Forester Feather Reed Grass (white) and a lime green Heuchera. The bed also already had six Exotic Mixed Lilies.
As soon as I got back from the nursery and after getting gas, I unloaded the car and set off to position my plants. Once I had them situated, I dug into Bed No. 2, as I wanted to get this one finished off as best I could. With the plants in, I could now see where I still had areas that needed planting, but since it was starting to get dark, I figured I would have to mulch in the morning and that night I would have sweet dreams of what other plants I wanted to put in this bed.
Today we were planning on going to the Green County Dairy Breakfast, unless it was raining. I decided that I better get an early start outside because if we went and in order for us to get there in time before they finished serving, I would have to be in the barn by 7:00. So I headed outside around 6:00 to do the mulching on Bed No. 2. I pulled the skidloader out and could feel that rain seemed imminent. I called Bob and asked him what he wanted to do. We decided with it looking like rain, we would forego the Dairy Breakfast but would do some errand running instead. Okay, that left me a little more leeway on my morning.
I scooped up a big load of mulch and as careful as you can be with a skidloader full of mulch, headed into the back yard, hoping not to do too much damage to the grass along the way. Two skidloader buckets later and a lot of shoveling and forking later, I am done mulching. And, I have to say it looks marvelous. As you can see, it even now has some visitors -- my garden gnomes have found a new home.
It just needs a few garden ornaments to finish it off and about two or three more plants in the back and Bed No. 2 can be put to rest. Oh, yes, I have to say, she looks so pretty, like a shiny new penney with its copperish-red dressing of mulch. Now I have to wait for all the plants to start to bloom. Fortunately, I think I can do that because I know it was all my own blood, sweat and tears that went into it. That is a good feeling. It may not be the prettiest thing to anyone else, but to me, it is that feeling of accomplishment, like looking at your newborn baby cradled in your arms.
It is a rush. My high -- that feeling of closing your eyes, rocking on your heels and then. . . wait for it, here it comes . . . ta-dah . . . aaaahhhhhhh . . .there it is. Yep, I can feel it pulsing through my veins right now. Now, I think, this is what every addict seeks – that high and final feeling of euphoria.
And the finale – I open my eyes and my high puts a big, ole’ smile on my face.
It is a rush. My high -- that feeling of closing your eyes, rocking on your heels and then. . . wait for it, here it comes . . . ta-dah . . . aaaahhhhhhh . . .there it is. Yep, I can feel it pulsing through my veins right now. Now, I think, this is what every addict seeks – that high and final feeling of euphoria.
And the finale – I open my eyes and my high puts a big, ole’ smile on my face.
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