March 2016 – Wellyssa's Womb

The Spring Maiden

Spring – such a savage season. Like a sweet young maiden, she flirts with us, showing us only small glimpses of her beauty, leaving us hungering for more.

Chopin Crown Imperial, blooming too early

And, like the vengeful young maiden, the object of her affection scorned, she lashes out with cold wind and snow, running away to hide her tears, she leaves us yet again hungering for more.

Apricot Tree, wrapped against spring freeze

The Apricot tree is in full bloom for a week now. Something about the 70 degree weather she says. I watched the temperature steadily dropped over the past three days, and finally decided to try to save her buds. This beautiful little tree gets her buds frozen off every year. This year I’m trying to change that. I wrestled with the wind yesterday and wrapped her up in row cover fabric. Held down with twine and large binder clips. I stuck my head up inside the fabric and it actually was much warmer inside there than outside. I hope this is enough protection, it’s all I could think to do. We’ll see.

(Update: no apricots.)

Chopin Crown Imperials covered with black pots to protect against spring freeze

The crown imperials are tucked away underneath these large size black pots, held down with long fabric pins. I can’t believe they came up this early. They’re pricey bulbs damn it!

Tee hee hee, she squeels!

Willow woman – phase 1

March 12, 2016: Someone posted a beautiful picture of a willow branch sculpture on facebook. I immediately put it into my file cabinet for future must do projects. I saved all the willow branches from last falls pruning and had a ginormous pile behind the storage fence just waiting to start this project.

It’s spring! Time to build the willow woman! My good friends D and Bear were all too happy to help. They love artsy projects, especially D (she’s an artist). Brian and I went outside early and laid out the weed barrier (because I’ll be damned if I end up pulling weeds out of my willow woman’s skirt!) Then we anchored in the basic frame for the structure.

We used tree stakes and rebar to build the shape of what will be her skirt and shoulders. The rear stake will anchor the rear branches so they don’t blow around in the wind.

D and I working on the outside of the skirt. (Bear was being camera shy, I’ll get her next time.)

5:30 pm. Filling the center of the skirt. Out of branches, out of energy. Done for now.

Pink forsythia

March 12, 2016: I planted this “shrub” 4 years ago. This is the first time it’s bloomed and it’s still so puny. I give it extra fertilizer, extra water . . . . it’s just a wussy plant. But hey, here it is blooming! (except the flowers are white not pink!)

Daylily backbreaker

Week of March 1st, 2016: Waaay back in 2006 Brian and I took a trip to Augusta Missouri to see his Aunt and Uncle, Judy and Randy. They have a beautiful piece of land in a pristine valley, surrounded by wooded hills and vineyards. When we drove up the long driveway, the first thing I saw was a beautiful row of orange daylilies. I commented to Aunt Judy about how beautiful they were and she went into a tirade about what a pain in the ass they are and how they’ve completely taken over the hibiscus garden. I said: “what hibiscus?” She said: “exactly!” So she pushed her way through the daylilies and pointed out the poor hibiscus shrubs completely drowned in daylilies, and explained how she just hadn’t had time to dig them out . . . . . so here I am with a shovel digging out the day lilies.

Digging daylilies at Aunt Judy's. — Digging day lilies at Aunt Judy’s.

Bonus! I get to take them home! I ended up with about 200 tuber sections.

New daylily bed, 2006. (The strip of disturbed ground to the left of the dirt berm in the front by the road) All the darker bumps are the holes for the 1000 crocus that I planted before the lawn was seeded. The amount of water it takes to grow a freshly seeded lawn, will rot your bulbs. FYI — New day lily bed

This is the front yard, looking toward the east from the front porch. (The strip of disturbed ground to the left of the dirt berm in the front by the road). All the darker bumps (closer to the porch) are the holes for the 2000 crocus that I planted before the lawn was seeded. (FYI: The amount of water it takes to grow a freshly seeded lawn, will rot your bulbs. Plant bulbs AFTER the lawn comes in.)

Daylily bed, 2014

Daylily bed, 2014This started out as 100 tubers. I planted two large beds of day lilies, one on the north side of the driveway and the other on the south side of the driveway. They are glorious in mid June. But spring cleanup is a real chore. I pulled out 4 large bags of dead leaves and stems on each side. But you can’t beat day lilies, really. They are troopers. And you need to be tough to live out here on the open plains in Brighton. So I’ve now got day lily beds strategically placed around the yard and on the berms. And if you drive around the neighborhood in June, you can also see my orange babies in several of my neighbor’s yards too. I love them, they make me happy.

I’m still trimming . . . .

Week of March 7th, 2016: Trimmed all the tall grasses on the street side of the north berm, cut down the dead iris leaves and stalks (I found that it’s easier to cut iris with a pair of sharp scissors rather than the hand pruners), trimmed back the perennial wild aster, the marshmallows, shrub roses and hyssop, and oh yes – the north/west daylily bed. That took all week, a few hours a day. Can I just say: “I’m over it!”

Did I say trimming?

February 28, 2016: We . . . I guess I should say who “we” is. My spiritual community – “we” use my back yard a lot for Sabbats and various community events. So I decided to organize some community “work days” to help get some of the back yard projects done. I was worried that no one would be interested in coming over and sweating in the yard with me – but lo and behold! 5 people showed up and said they would be happy to help with the spring trimming. We got the butterfly garden completely trimmed back, all the Russian sage and rabbit brush on the north berm, the 4 large pampas grasses in the dragon gardens, and all the maximilians. We had a lot of fun and the yard looks all neat and tidy. Yeah team!

Archer and Lupin trimming back the pampas grass

COLS workday Feb. 28, 2016: Me, Willow and James

Butterfly garden all trimmed up, trimmed down!