Home > Journeys With the Authors > Home & Garden > May 15th, 2006

News from the Garden, May 15, 2006

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What a delight it was to come home after Malice Domestic to a display of irises! I was afraid we'd missed them all while we were traveling. The roses are doing pretty well, too, and the weeds haven't taken over the world - yet!

Also waiting for me was a box from the National Arbor Day Society - with 6 fruit trees, 5 Rose of Sharon, 5 boxwood, 1 Rhododendron and 6 azaleas, which have to be put into the ground, along with a crepe myrtle that I have been growing in a pot since the fall, and a variety of shrubs that I bought before the trip, but didn't get a chance to plant - 2 holly, 2 juniper, and 2 heather.

Now, if you met me at Malice, you know that I'm no spring chicken. But it seems that spring does something strange to me - it makes me think that I'm 16 and on the track team again. So I go out into the back yard and dig holes, or build flat sculptures with bricks, or plant way too many vegetables.

The current project is to rescue the back yard from the weeds. Last fall I covered the entire area with black plastic (2 rolls of 100' x 10'.) Last month, I took it up section by section, cleared the ground and laid it down again. Now I'm planting trees and shrubs, in an attempt to beautify the space. The moles are doing their thing down below, so I never know what the surface will be like when I wander around, and there's one area that is covered with poison ivy - to which I am EXTREMELY allergic.

Anyway, I have been hard at work planting and putting down brick rings and mulch, when it isn't raining (which it's been doing a lot of this week!)

I will post pictures when I have the current planting project finished!

Susan - Garden Maven