Spring Ritual

In my last post, I suggested that you get more done if you can get yourself to focus on just one thing. This warmer weather has me focusing on my garden. In the meantime, the house is gathering dust and the usual piles of clutter.

Even in the garden I'm feeling overwhelmed. I had knee problems the past two summers so I couldn't dig. I grow lots of bulbs and perennials and everything seems to be overgrown now, and I expect to do a lot of digging and rethinking over this gardening season.

If I wanted to plant something new, or even divide and replant anything, I will no doubt run into a shovel full of bulbs. At this time of the year I like to leave them alone so they can gather strength for next year's blooms.  Even then, I'll have way too many as I've lived here for over 40 years and they just keep multiplying.

Where the bulbs aren't crowding the perennials, the perennials have grown over the bulbs and corms. I will wait until after the leaves of these die down also, before digging things up and reassigning space.

The flower strip between my place and my neighbours (formerly known as the fence garden before their old pool fence was removed) gives us both lots of pleasure with its assorted blooms, but the perennials there are currently battling for space and have managed somehow to intermix. My main job here will be to clear out anything that is encroaching on my peonies.  It means a lot of digging, and I'm thinking it's time to reduce this to nothing but peonies, daylilies and flowering bushes. That will have to happen gradually.

Some of the flowering bushes didn't do well this winter and I need to get in and cut out the dead wood. Even the apple tree seems to have a problem this year. The bark has stripped right off parts of it.  There is also another dead branch higher up. The hubby will have to take care of that branch but this may be the last year for this old tree.

The half with the bark problem isn't flowering, but the other half is making up for it and the lilac bushes are blooming too.

There is a nice little red maple that has appeared out front in my accent garden. I have to move that soon as it's growing right over the gas line.

In fact, that entire garden has become overgrown as I've been afraid to dig there since the gas line went in several years ago. I'd like to eliminate it entirely, but have waited too long once again. There are a few things in there I'd like to save and plant somewhere else.

At least I can report that my rock river project is starting to shape up nicely. The forsythia I bought last fall bloomed for me this spring and the new little globe cedar is looking good too. The weigela that I thought was dead is showing life.  I just need a few more big stones and some river rocks now.

My new raised garden is off to a slow start but there are baby tomatoes, lettuce and carrots in there so far, and a couple of things I found growing in my yard, which may turn out to be nothing but wild cucumbers, but I'm curious so they are in there too for now.



There is a lot to do, and as you may have guessed, I've been distracted from this story by one of those other chair legs. I've managed to clear out a huge pile of weeds that started to flower. I had to tackle that to prevent them from reseeding.

The goutweed likes to keep me busy too!  It's not mine, but it apparently wants to be.  I have peonies back there and I much prefer them so I have to draw a strict line as to where it is allowed to be. I think it will win this battle eventually.  I may have to relocate the peonies. But knowing goutweed, I'd likely end up with some of the roots getting transplanted too and start the problem in a whole new spot. Honestly, I'm getting too old for this fight!

Well, I think you have some idea what I've been up to outdoors around here.  At least I'm getting some exercise while I'm at it.

Get That Chair Out of the Way

Lion tamer, Clyde Beatty was the first person to bring a chair into the circus ring to tame lions and other large cats.  A whip is just for show but a chair has a real purpose. the lion gets confused when confronted by the four legs of the chair all at once and rather than attack, it sits and waits. Likewise, when you have too many tasks in front of you confusion will set in and you won't accomplish much of anything.

Spring is such an incredibly busy time of year for me. Not only do I attempt spring cleaning indoors but the gardens need to be cleaned up too. A bit of early planting wouldn't hurt either. On top of that, I do taxes for everyone in this family and am grateful that is finally out of the way.

Mother Nature has discouraged me from doing much outside work so far, but I did manage to haul some rocks from a neighbour's house to my rock river last week.  I do need a few more though. This week promises better weather. I have a lot of dead stuff to cut down yet, as I left some of it over winter for the birds. It will be harder to rake the leaves out of the flower beds as it's been left so late this year and all my millions of bulb are growing well, and many are even flowering.

Spring cleaning got off to a good start but has now stalled as I got busy doing other things. Oh, and once again I'm adding fuel to my fire by doing various art projects. I've just finished a five-day course on drawing facial features and started another face drawing course this week with a different teacher. I'm also trying to at least watch the videos for a Sketchbook Revival course, and wishing I could find the time to do at least some of the class work along with the others involved. The card making course I started before Christmas still has not been completed as I keep getting involved in card exchanges with other students throughout the world.  I'm just finishing one of those now. So much to do, so little time, and it's easy to get confused as to where to turn next.

 Many people don't have trouble focusing on a task once they get started but they do have trouble deciding on what to do.  We all have to learn to get the chair out of the way and choose a task. Today I chose to finally post to this blog. Next, I will do my month end accounting for my business, and then I will get out to mail the latest batch of cards and do some garden work while I'm out there. At noon I'll watch a live presentation on attacking how to draw a face while I have my lunch. After doing some housework, or perhaps more gardening, I'll do my homework for that course. Supper is already made, thank goodness.  I'm sure I'll get distracted along the way, but I have a course of action and am bound to succeed at accomplishing some of it today.  I can already check the blog post off the list, eh.