Work!

As I mentioned recently, I've had some time to spend in the garden finally, and this post is a look at some of what I accomplished. It may not be the most inspiring of posts, but it makes me good to share my progress.

Starting with weeding. Those cute little seedlings grow up so quickly! I'm not usually pretty good about weeding a little bit each day, making the overall task seem smaller. Not this year though, as the bakery and new woodworking business are eating up my garden time. So I've been pulling larger plants by the barrow full!

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One plant that grows surprisingly quickly is pokeweed. Its thick taproot makes it difficult to eradicate once it establishes, and establish it has in my garden.

So I cut it down several times a summer.

I have a plan for this area that involves a railing. More on that if I manage to get to it soon. I want to do something with that salvaged circular firewood rack too, but for now it's just a matter of keeping the plants in check:

You may notice a few bamboo culms in there, as well as the bungee cord that makes wheelbarrow loads so easy to manage -- no worries about piling stuff too high!


I had a different type of bamboo project in the front, where this beauty of a plant is getting a bit too tall for my tastes, blocking too much of the window:

So I decided to prune it back a little:

You can see how much I took off, maybe 18 inches?

Final results:

I'm a bit worried about this, as I've not done it before and am wondering how the plant will respond. It won't hurt the plant, but how will it look? We'll see in a few weeks I guess.


A little more bamboo pruning, trimming the Pleioblastus distichus that's growing all around these patio stairs in back:

Difficult to see, but having these taller than each step makes walking difficult, so I cut them down by half or so:

This species takes quite well to pruning, and can even be kept lawn-like by mowing. I probably should remove a bit more around the stairs now that I see this...



I spent a little time at two of the water features, starting with the pond:

Remove weeds...

...plant Colocasia (elephant ears):

Doesn't look like much right now...

...but those big leaves will provide the backdrop that I've grown accustomed to each summer.


The water barrel in front got a makeover too, and the two goldfish are so happy!

I replaced the solid concrete pillar with a cinder block. That not only gives them a place to hide, but it allowed me to put two pots of water plants in here.

I did some other planting in the surrounding area, getting my purple fountain grass into the pot and putting some cannas into the ground.



There's one last little project that I want to show you today, and that's my clearance NOID ficus picked up last year:

It's starting to look fantastic so I gave it a bigger pot. It will be fun to see what size this can get to by the end of the growing season! Still trying to figure out what sort of conditions this one wants, but full sun seems like too much for it. Any thoughts?


Still more to do (and show you), but that's it for today...

So nice to be making some overdue progress in the garden!

One note: I mentioned earlier that my garden would be on the Sustainable Backyard Tour again this year. Unfortunately I had another commitment on the weekend so can't participate this year. Sorry!

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