new gardens

I finally realized that my brain cannot hold two thoughts together and collate them. Not with recipes – not with knitting – not with reading. Harumph. And then I realized that I had had general anaesthesia in July as well as in September. So, maybe there is good reason for the ” brain on holiday.”

So, instead I am concentrating on my physical capacities. I haven’t been sick for two weeks! That is a record. Maybe the grandkids are healthier? They haven’t had colds for a couple weeks either. And it has been nice enough outside to sit on the porch and drink tea; read a book and drink tea; visit with T and drink tea; talk to the gkids and drink tea. Mind you, I still need two sweaters.

Thanks to the power company and the partial outages, the flower beds by the doors were dug up enough to need complete revamping.

removing step stones

Last week A&S helped dig up stones and Dave hauled more stones over from a random pile. That way I could lay them out in an approximation and try it out before actually committing to a new pathway.

new paths

Bgirl loves to dig so she got to use my new trowel to dig holes along the front door slate. Then we went over to her house to steal a bunch of plants divide some of my old coral bells that were getting too cramped. Yes, that’s it. And she popped them in the ground and gently – REALLY gently – brushed a few crumbs of dirt back onto the plants. She’s a lot more sensitive to these things than Bboy who simply stomped on the newly transplanted fleurs while going down the walk.

I also wanted to expand the beds along the stone wall. The B’s were happy to help me with that too. Digging dirt and carrying it by the trowel full up the hill to another spot to drop it. Bboy was happy enough to pick up stones again which was fine by me. Of course, he liked dragging the pail with wheels up the hill and down the steps.

Bs helping stonewall

The nice thing about dirt out in PA is that once you tear the sod off, there’s not a lot of digging to do. It’s all stoney soil, no clay, and incorporating the mushroom soil is the only thing to do. And adding it every year. So once I get the sod off the expanded sections, I just have to wait for my Jung’s order to arrive and hunt my friends’ gardens in the “Landscaping For Less” program.

I did plant the walking onions by the milk house where I’m putting my hollyhocks. Yes, of course, I will have lots of hollyhocks here, too. And I planted all the loose bulbs I found in the dirt pile that the power co. left.  I found more iris peeking through the dirt that I was given last fall in the LFL plan. I planted the cabbage varieties seeds in the plant stand the BIL Tom built for me – how many years ago? Anyway, I put it on the front porch so I can enjoy it everyday its nice enough to sit out. I’ll probably transplant the cabbabbages eventually but I needed to plant something! right now! So I did.