The Cat Walk

The Wednesday walk had lots of company. Jodi, Voodie and Slayer accompanied me on the stroll.

Cats have a tendency to always be looking the other way. They are having a little "meeting" in the front perennial bed where today I found some actual flower buds showing on a group of Hellebores

Both have been spending more time outdoors than usual, but still want to come in and out a dozen times a day. It may be too wet, too cold or just too dull.

Slayer was crawling about a group of rhodies.We investigated the broken down nursery bed framework. There are a some nice looking rhododendrons in various places. This one is in the 2001 area. I didn't investigate its pedigree.

There are a few that really need to be "purged".

Every day is showing more springlike conditions. This was the first time we had seen the garlic shoots. Not very photogenic!It is quite amazing how quickly these little bulbs pop up and come into bloom. The Eremurus noses are showing. I hope they don't freeze.Today I actually did some gardening work. Not much, but enough to get a start on the pruning, and the aching body. Each year seems to be very much like the one before. Perhaps we are just too dull!

We Ditched the Orphans

This title has a somewhat unfriendly sound, so perhaps a bit of clarification is in order. Every year we have a bunch of plants that sit around as leftovers from our Plant Sale or divisions, or acquisitions that have not been planted in a proper garden spot. Each fall for a number of years we have been sinking these "strays" in a ditch along the path behind the manure area. A ditch here in our domain of sandy soil will never have water, so it is a dry spot below grade that will accommodate quite a number of plants. There is quite a variety of mostly shrubs and trees that end up here. Here are a few little Evergreen Azaleas to go in.... A couple of Rhododendrons have spent the last 2 years of their lives in this situation, doesn't seem to hinder them too much. Each fall the ditch will need a bit of cleaning out, as it gets a bottom layer of composty/maure-type stuff that is shovelled in around the plants.

A winter with lots of snow, actually means less need for this filling in. We can't count on snow, so we do add quite a bit of manure to the packed in pots. I did intend to count the number of plants that actually landed here, but didn't!

Now we need to deal with another bunch of herbaceous perennials that also need a home for the winter.