February 2016 – Wellyssa's Womb

South Willow Garden

February 10-12, 2015 Wednesday-Friday

The south willow garden is overgrown. The willows keep spreading out taking over more and more of this space, yes I know – they ARE willows and that’s what willows do. When we first moved into this house 11 years ago, the contractor scraped the lot and smoothed it all out – I guess they thought that would make it look pretty. Actually it was a house sitting in the middle of a dirt field. Not my idea of pretty. We bought the house in December and started first thing in the spring purchasing the specimen trees that would eventually anchor the whole landscaping plan. 100_0875

Then all of a sudden things started to grow on the south side of the house. Apparently there used to be an underground irrigation pipe that cut across my yard diagonally from the reservoir ponds to the north/west of the subdivision, across the street, and then across town to some farm at the east edge of Brighton. Really. And the willows put their roots down to tap that water source. So first thing in the spring, after being scraped off level to the ground, they began to work their way back up. I decided to honor their tenacity and let them stay. (The orange paint on the ground is the outline of what will be the edge of the lawn.) 100_1771

So now the willows get trimmed back to half their height about every 3 years and every year I dig out their shoots that keep spreading out and trying to take over the whole bed. They’re worth it though, they provide good screening all year round and the birds use them for shelter as they visit the bird feeders. South willow garden in summer (2014)

EVERYTHING in this garden needs to be trimmed or cleaned up, the willows, the marshmallow, the day lilies, iris, elderberry, sand cherries, Russian sage and viburnums. The rabbits have completely destroyed the quince. (SAD FACE) They must be particularly tasty because they ate them right down to the ground. I really wanted their coral colored flowers to balance all the purple in the Russian sage. I’ll try again next time they go on sale.

Trimming, Red Twig dogwood

More shrub trimming! What? You thought I was done? You haven’t seen this yard. I’m still working on the south berm. I got all the red twig dogwood, on both sides of the berm, thinned out and removed all the dead wood.

Now when you look at the berm all you see is a blaze of red branches. You can’t get more bang for your buck than red twig dogwood. I bought them at Lowes probably 8 years ago in one gallon pots for $2.50 each. Now they’re 5-6′ wide and 3-5′ tall.

Free plants – an experiment

February 5, 2016 – Friday

Puling out the twisted willow branches that I put in the pots in front of the house. I painted them with burgundy, purple and gold glitter paint last fall, so when the eastern sun rises and hits the front of the house, the sticks sparkle in the sunshine. I think they looked pretty good, at least compared to lonely empty pots.

So as I was I was pulling the branches out, one of them wouldn’t come out. I thought it must be frozen so I pulled harder and it finally came out, along with a clump of soil around the bottom with little roots sticking out.

Surprise!

I got 5 well rooted willow shoots out of the three pots, which I then planted together in another pot so their roots will continue to strengthen. Later in the spring I’ll find a good place to use these willows. I love free plants!

UPDATE: they didn’t make it. 🙁

The spark is lit.

February 9, 2016 Wednesday

At Imbolc we kindled the spark deep within us, to awaken our dormant potential. What is it that we want to manifest in 2016? What is it that we want to grow in our lives? These are the questions of Imbolc. Last week the Mother was sleeping beneath 10″ of snow. Yesterday and today the temperatures have been in the high fifties, the snow is almost completely gone. As I started working on the spring pruning, I can see signs of spring. The daffodils are pushing up around the red maples, so are the grape hyacinths (although the rabbits have eaten off all the tops). The Mother’s awake! Spring is on the way.

The_fire_within

I started pruning on the south berm because the snow is melted the most there, and the ground is only a little spongy. So far I’ve finished the rabbit brush, the purple smoke bush and the street-facing red twig dogwoods. The Dogwood and the smoke bush branches will go into the shredder, but the rabbit brush goes to the trash. The garbage man is going to love this pile! I was covered head to foot yesterday in rabbit brush fuzz. Manky rabbitbrush

Tidy Rabbitbrush My back hurts and my forearms hurt from all the pruning. Already. I had to get the big lopper out. It saves my hands and arms but it takes longer. This year I’ve got to behave myself or I’ll be done gardening by April. Mom is right. She lectures me every time we talk. “You can’t charge around the yard, digging holes, pulling hoses and dragging around heavy pots like you used to do.” Yes, yes I know. But it’s Imbolc, the spark has been lit! The Mother calls . . .

The list of all the things that need to get done is dancing around in front of me;

all my ideas for this year’s gardening projects are spinning in my head.

But it’s a small flame, like a flickering candle flame. And I need to remember to manage the fire in my heart, because that fire roars! But the fire in my body is dimming, except for the fire in my joints. So this year’s theme will be patience, moderation and maintenance. I’m trying to get excited about that. Time to slather on some “medicinal salve” and go to bed.