Yardwork

Well, I may have had some problems after the yardwork yesterday, but I did get some good work done that I will enjoy seeing later.

I have 3 edged areas in the middle of the backyard.  One is for wildflowers (nearest my garden, so I am hoping to attract a lot of native pollinators).  The 2nd was originally intended for a lovely but invasive plant with the idea that I could mow around it, but it spread seeds around so I am killing it (it will take some time).  The 3rd is my favorite so far.

That is the area where I planted tulips and hyacinths in cages to protect them from voles and squirrels.  The tulips all came up nicely, but no hyacinths.  Well, they were planted late.  I worried that the hyacinths all rotted (or oddly, grew stems larger than the wire cage mesh and were cut off).  The 200 hundred daffodils were planted freely as they are ignored by pests. 

So this Summer, I gave thought to other plants to grow there.  A single-season flowerbed is sort of wasteful of space.  Spring flowering bulbs want to stay a bit dry Summer and Fall (or they rot) so you can't surround them with plants that need regular watering. 

So I thought about lilies.  They are tough, they have tuberous roots that collect and hold what little water they need, and I had lots of them rescued from an area that was dug out 2 years ago.  Really, they survived plopped in small 6" pots and ignored except for natural rainfall.  So they were good to add among the tulips for Summer color. 

Well, it is probably too late for blooming this year, but I managed to plant 30 of them around the outer edges of the circle the past week.  And then, knowing they wouldn't bloom this year, I considered what I had that could survive no special watering this year and might provide some color.

I should mention that my regular flowerbeds need serious work.  I didn't give them the attention they needed last year and couldn't do it this Spring (my bad knee).  And I had planted 3 dozen marigolds, 2 dozen zinnias, and 2 dozen salvia indoors under lights in March, expecting to use them in the regular older flowerbeds.

Well, marigolds are pretty adjusted to dry soil, so I started planting them around the lilies today.  And then added most of the salvias and zinnias when I ran out of marigolds.  If they live on natural rainfall and bloom "HURRAY"!  If not, there wasn't anywhere else to put them.

So I planted most of them among the lilies and will hope for "something" from them.  And even then, they were the lesser of all the seedlings.  I used the best in 7 deck planters last week.  So no loss and some possible gain.  I bet in a month, I will have some good flowers to show.  I don't grow wimpy flowers.

That 3rd 20' diameter edged circle is the one closest to the deck, so I will see it better than the other 2 most of the time.  And the main birdfeeder is in the center of it, so that draws my attention there as well.  And to not disturb the plants, I have a small path to the feeder from the side and stones to set my ladder on for refilling it. 

This Fall, I will take some leftover largish flat rocks I bought for edging the old flowerbeds and make a path to the birdfeeder.  I intend for the area to be filled enough with future plantings to need places to step.

And cramps or not, I have more annuals to plant, so I will be out there again tomorrow...