My yard has been calling me and I have to apologize for disappearing from the blog.
To say it was a long, cold winter here in Vermont – was an understatement! It seemed to last forever.
I did enjoy a lot of snowshoeing with Max (our boxer) out back in the woods, where we made a lot of snowshoe trails and walked once or twice a day for an hour or so each time.
I had bought Max a new toy – a blue rubber hedgehog – and he insisted on taking Hedgie for a snowshoe – Max carried Hedgie the entire way as we walked along the trails we made.
And yes, there is something about all that clean, pristine white snow that can look sort of magical.
But being outside in the winter means bundling up and feeling like the Michelin Tire man.
Spring, summer, and even fall are more my seasons. I can be outside all day and work in the yard and soak up the sun!
So, when the snow finally melted and the yard dried up. I decided it was time do a major yard project that I’d been putting off.
My flower garden (shown above) is 70 feet long and 6 feet wide. It runs the entire length of the front of our house. It’s divided into 5 sections with rock paths, so I can get down in there and weed and deadhead.
When we redid that garden 9 years ago, I actually had someone come in with a small excavator and dig everything out! It was an overgrown mess left by the people who had owned our house in the mid-1990’s – we bought this place in 2001. Between the time we moved in and when we redid the garden I spent most of my summers constantly weeding and I’d had ENOUGH!
So, when we redid the garden, it was late October, and it was done in a rush because I knew the snow would be coming around Thanksgiving so I hurriedly laid the rock paths and never bothered to level them out as I knew time was short.
Last year, the uneven paths really bothered me from a physical point of view. Kneeling, bending, walking and squatting on all those uneven rocks really made my entire body ache. I promised myself that this year (2020) I would tear out all the rocks and put them back down to form level paths. Well, as level as you can get considering that we’re talking rocks here.
The first weekend in May was a lovely 70-75 degree temperature, with lots of lovely sun and I decided that if I was going to do this, I better get my act in gear because (I’m turning 60 in July) the crocus were already in bloom and the daffodils, tulips, peonies and everything else were coming up.
So, one path at a time, I pulled out all the rocks. Armed with my favorite outdoor tool, our John Deere tractor with the bucket, I brought up soil. Leveled everything out, put down weed cloth and replaced the rocks – making the paths not quite so wide and fluffed up the mulch.
I swear I moved probably 2,000 pounds of rocks in 3 days! I’m pretty sure my husband thought I had lost my mind.
In a way, I had. With all the craziness going on in the world with the coronavirus and after a long winter, I just needed to be outside, keep busy and do something physical.
Max, of course, supervised the entire process from one of his favorite spots in the yard – under a sugar maple just off the corner of our deck – where there is YES, another garden that’s L-shaped (and also in need of a major facelift – another major project with more rock construction on the agenda after the ground phlox have finished flowering).
There were a LOT of extra rocks when all was said and done. They have all been moved & cleaned up. I’m so much happier with the way it looks.
Of course, right now I’m cutting back all the gone by tulips and daffodils 😀 and waiting for the iris, peonies, lilies, tall plox, etc. to bloom.
So, I do apologize for the disappearing act. I’m still here, I just can’t seem to focus.
The software biz has come to pretty much a screeching halt, our customers are all construction contractors and they aren’t working – which means we aren’t either.
If you wonder where I am, I’m in the yard.