How Does My Garden Grow?

Ever So Slowly.

 

The weather is not being at all cooperative this spring, if you could call it that. It can’t make up its mind if it wants to hang on to winter a bit longer or jump right on over to summer. I have been trying to get out and do a little bit each day that the weather is nice.
I finally got around to raking out the flowerbed around the deck. There were lots of leaves. The upper ones were dry but as I got lower in the pile closer to the ground it was very moist. Even some small puddles of water.

Before the raking began.

After the raking began.

 

It also disturbed quite a few of the leaf litter dwellers. I saw black beetles scurry away, an inch long brown centipede squiggle away, and about three young wolf spiders ran up the deck wall. Earthworms were also present. I tried to cover them with some soil so they could find their way back underground before they dried out or the birds found them.
When I was starting to rake out around the deck I managed to break the claw rake. It had broken last year but David was able to fix it with super glue. The metal “nail” that held the claw to the handle rusted out this time. I just threw the claw part on this stand. I took out the wooden handle by the shed steps and replaced it with the plastic covered handle from the just broken claw rake. I put the old wooden handle next to the burn barrel. David said the other day that he was needing a new longer stick for stirring the trash as he burns it.

The claw of the rake.

The handle of the rake. The old handle in the background by burn barrel and BBQ.

 

David  bought me this cute little leaf rake to replace the claw rake. It worked well getting into the smaller spaces. I was also able to rake out the soil after I had turned it with a shovel.

Serious face like that famous farm painting.

Happy with my new rake.

 

I pulled all the dead marigold plants out of the junk pile bed on one of my outside days.

I was expecting to find an iris plant there, but I think the gophers found it before the ground froze.

There was now sign of it.

 

The Junk Pile Bed and removed marigold plants.

 

The irises are coming up in the corner of the shed flower bed.

They are also coming up in the bed under the south bedroom window.

The Irises in the corner of shed flowerbed.

 

 

I have been bringing Sully out with me each day too. He is glad to be able to find more available grass to munch. He also has a spot in the lawn that he just sits and smells and drools all over. I can’t tell what is there that is of such interest. I don’t see any catnip in the spot, so there must be some other plant that catches his fancy.

Look at all this grass.

Ahh! Here is my smelly spot!

 

 

Now that I have raked the flower bed I have uncovered some catnip.

A small patch of catnip.

Yeah! Now I don’t have to search for it under the leaf pile.

 

 

The rest of the photos showing the raking of the deck flowerbed.

Took a break, now back to work.

All finished.

The leaf pile is now behind BOB in the grass.

 

 

Sully surveys my work. He finds a clump of grass to nibble. Then he finds his way under the steps. There is no catnip under the steps yet but he did find this tree sapling to nuzzle and drool on.

She did a pretty good job.

Now I can eat this without getting leaves in my mouth.

What a cute little sapling.

 

 

When I finished raking for the day, I decided to just sit on the deck step and enjoy the sunshine on my face. As I looked up at the sky I saw a small black spot in the tree at the far end of the driveway. It was the neighbor’s kitty. I call her Little Blackie because I don’t know her actual name. She is a climber she has startled David and I both when we come outside and she is on our roof. I had to talk her over to the deck area one day so that she could jump down onto the shed roof then onto the deck to get down. One day she startled Dave when she jumped from the roof onto the swamp cooler in the back yard. If she had been in one of the trees over the roof of either trailer this day I would not have been to concerned, but this tree just hangs over the driveway and I didn’t want her to fall from that high up. I decide to walk over to the tree and talk her down. She was a very good listener. She followed my instructions and got safely to the ground. She thanked me by rubbing on my legs, let me give her a couple of pets, and then laying in front of me rolling around. I walked back over to the steps and she found a shady spot to lay in the driveway like nothing even happened. Sully watched it all laying in his comfy, grassy, lawn. He kept an eye on Little Blackie after she laid down in the driveway too.

Yep, that spot is Little Blackie.

Nice shady spot to relax after tree climbing.

You just stay on your end of the driveway.

 

 

Friday I turned a small patch of soil in the deck flowerbed and raked it out with my new rake.
I was able to do a bit of indoor gardening today. I transplanted the four best looking sweet peppers into pots. I then got some green bell peppers started in an egg crate.

The Transplanting.

 

 

That is where I stand in the yardening this week. We are supposed to get some more of that white fluffy stuff again, starting Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday afternoon. We could get around 6 inches. I don’t think it will actually accumulate since the ground is still pretty warm so hopefully it does a lot of melting. So you see the weather is taking another turn back towards winter. I really wish it would stop doing that.