We finally got the vegetable garden started yesterday! In the morning before my show, we weeded and mulched the beds. The bad news: I found a bramble sprouting in the middle of one bed. These wild brambles are my nemesis. They're all over the yard and they have these deep, woody roots that are impossible to pull out. And if you don't get the deep, woody root out, it just comes right back.
When we made the raised beds for the vegetable garden, we dug really deep to get all the weeds out. And we pulled up all the weeds for several feet around, and put down landscape fabric to keep them out. But a bramble finally got into the bed. The root must have run underground until it found the nice soil of the bed and then been like, "hey hey! New home for me!" I dug down to uncover as much of the bramble root as I could, and poured boiling water on it. Unfortunately I don't think that will do anything more than delay its progress. I don't know what we can do long-term.
Anyway enough of that. The bramble is gone for the time being, and after my show it was time to plant seeds! We planted beets, chard, spinach, onions, sugar snaps and long beans. Also Georg dug up the stump of doom behind the house! It was a privet gone wild, right up against the house. Now that it's out we can plant the dawrf buddleia we got at Plant Delights. (description: "This rare genetic dwarf makes a tight ball, 3' tall x 3' wide, of greyish foliage topped all summer with miniature spikes of white flowers. Just wait until you see the miniature butterflies it attracts! Remember, it should only be pruned with miniature clippers and watered with tiny watering cans.") The buddleia is going into an odd spot by the northern corner of the house -- it will get afternoon sun but just behind it gets no sun at all. Maybe we'll plant ferns back there.
Today I took a break from work to move a hydrangea and plant a couple of farfugiums (farfugii?) which we bought last fall and never got around to planting. They had been in their pots all winter, dragging along, and I was worried a couple of times that they had died. But they both have new growth today. woo! I love farfugium.
Now it's back to work. The work kind, not the fun garden kind.
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