Yard waste pickup - Just in time

Spring cleanup in the Phactors' gardens takes quite an effort. Although a large proportion of our leaves get composted, a lot of leaves gather in and about shrubs, bushes, and the dead aerial stems of herbaceous perennials. And as the buds and shoots issue forth its time to clean up all this stuff. All the twigs and stems make this difficult stuff to compost without grinding it first, and TPP once had a brute of a chopper-grinder that could make mince out of anything smaller than 3" in diameter. However, it was hard to start (a lot of weight to turn over), and frankly, it was a scary beast to use. It was traded to a nice flower-growing lady who teaches 3d grade; she's not afraid of anything. So now the garden "waste" gets composted by our municipality, but they only begin the yard "waste" pickup this coming week.  Bone to pick: please stop calling it waste because it gets composed. Our garden compostables get stuffed into those 30 gallon paper bags, with the help of a nifty plastic funnel that fits just inside the bag providing a wide mouth and a sleeve that keeps twigs and hard stems from puncturing or ripping the bag when you stuff it. Right now the garage is the holding pen for at least a dozen full bags.  So without a pickup this week, Ms. Phactor would have to park her car outside; TPP's is the official "new" car so it stays in.  Oh, the things you do to recycle and compost. It will take many more bags before the cleanup is finished, but this warmish March has moved the work schedule up and with fewer excuses, TPP has gotten an earlier start. 

Spring cleaning

Spring garden cleanup is quite a chore no matter how well you prepare in the fall.  Where the hell do all the leaves come from? Shrubbery and the dead aerial portions of perennial plants are terrific leaf grabbers.  The high temp today will be in the upper 60s and the predicted rain looks to be heading more easterly while still south of us, so TPP will spend the day doing some garden cleanup. Gently removing the accumulated leaves from among the hellebores will be job number one. The flower buds have really begun to push up through the leaves, but things will look much better and the plants will flower better without the smothering covering of leaves. Before the cleanup is done, the Phactors will probably fill 10-12 of those large paper lawn waste bags for composted recycling by the city.  It was also windy yesterday, so today there will have to be some policing of the estate to pick up limbs also for city recycling as wood mulch. Buds on snow trillium (Trillium nivale), a very small native to local woodlands, but not common is showing color. As are the yellow flower buds of Cornus mas.  Such warm temps will push things along quite quickly, and some not so early flowering shrubs are showing swollen flower buds, e.g., pearl bushes.  So why with so much work to do, is TPP blogging instead of raking?  It requires some planning and at least one more cup of coffee.  All good gardeners know this.

Early spring Saturday garden chores/exercise

It's a Saturday, and Spring Break!  What a relief to not be hustling around to prepare materials for the coming week.  That will be next weekend.  Let's see what's on the agenda.  Limbs.  It's only been 2 weeks since the last pick-up-sticks, but several extremely windy days have rendered this task necessary again.  Fortunately the Rhododendron hating oak hasn't damaged anything yet this spring.  Leaves.  A leaf barrier fence was erected around the west side of the pond to keep leaves from blowing in, at least some leaves, so now the wind-row of leaves needed to be removed from the fence before the fence can be removed.  Asparagus.  Time to cut off last year's aerial shoots in preparation for much anticipated goodness to follow shortly.  Woodchuck.  Drat!  Newly dug-redug burrow under the garden shed indicates a new resident.  Capture and relocation is the only viable control measure, but this is gosh awful early for them to be active.  Trellis.  A fence repair project requires that a clematis be retrained this year onto a trellis to allow the fence to be removed and replaced.  Because of gardens along both sides of the fence are gardens, the contractor must be very mindful of plants and not just trample them into oblivion.  We gladly pay more for plant watchfulness.  Neighbors are readying bicycles for some spring exercise, and surely it will be grand, but when they are exhausted what will they have accomplished?  If only they would try the Phactor's exercise program.  First, limbs. Bending and knee bends and lifting.  1, 2, 3, ..... 100 or more reps.  Next, leaves.  Twisting, and pulling, and reaching.  Keep that rake moving!  And so on.  And what a difference!  With my exercies program, things get done.  Oh, yes, always blog about garden exercise before doing garden exercies.  But now it's time for a coffee break!

Spring Cleaning Almost Done

Hey, the house can stay a wreck, but our gardens are almost presentable. No matter how many leaves you clean up in the fall, you still end up cleaning up lots more in the spring. Darned oaks. Yanked out lots of hackberry, cherry, and redbud seedlings from various beds and gardens (along with sugar maple, our worst woody weeds). Lots of thing needed replanting to save them from the pond remodeling, to fill in nasty open places, and to redistribute a number of things that have grown too big, not fulfilled their promise, or might like another place better. Bunnies really did a number on the raspberries; might be light crop, but made for easy pruning. But on the other hand some of the spring color beds look fantastic (bluebells, bleeding hearts, celandine poppies and bellworts combination). Redbuds just beginning to show color. Considering yesterday there were snowflurries in the mid-afternoon, today was a complete winner for gardening. Even gave little cat black a nice outing until she slipped her harness. And even better, not for me, but for Mrs. Phactor; tax season is over! Hmm, means she'll want some compensation for keeping the Phactor out of IRS trouble for another year.

Now is the time ....

It's spring here in Lincolnland and this is the time for action.
First, now is the time to begin a flowering log for your garden to keep track of what and when everything flowers. Such a log will show you when and where you have flowering "gaps" and the beginning of data that can be useful for showing changes in the flowering season. Such data kept for over a century (and this is why you should start as soon as possible) have shown significantly earlier flowering in the northeastern USA, a trend consistent with a warming climate. The Phactor has never done this himself formally, and it will be a challenge what with several hundred flowering plant species to keep track of (150+ trees and shrubs & who knows how many perennials).
Second, now is the time to begin ignoring your lawn. This can never begin too early. Avoid the temptation to buy all that high nitrogen lawn fertilizer all the stores have in stock. If you must spread something to keep the neighbors from staring, spread milky spore to provide a biological control of Japanese beetle and other lawn grubs. At most sow some seed on bare spots. If you start your lawn out early on a fertilizer diet it will expect water and nutrients all summer long, and rather than having your lawn go dormant in the heat of summer, as it should, you will be out there mowing, harvesting all that inedible biomass, a wretched excess caused by your own exuberance and misplaced energy. Think of the money you will save and buy yourself some new plants so the garden shops don't go under. Remember, a monoculture of grass just is not very interesting, not sophisticated aesthetically, and not ecologically stable.