Unfun Gardening

Now that we're in the midst of a high-pressure system for the first time in months, it has come time to start to tackle some of the not-so-pleasant tasks at Chickadee Gardens. I actually have a lot of gusto when it comes to these kinds of chores because the payoff in the end is big. Just dive in and make it happen. Somehow. Delayed gratification is a skill-set we gardeners embrace. So with shovel, loppers, secateurs and wheelbarrow in hand, FM and I dove in.

 

This is a before shot I shared last week. This is the back side of one of the Himalayan mounds (as we affectionately call these berms we created some years ago). Ceanothus gloriosus had been, well, glorious here for several years but took a downhill turn. While it might have made a recovery this summer, one thing I have learned that if it bugs me that much it's okay to remove it. And so we did.

But, first, this is the real point of the ceanothus removal. Once that ceanothus was gone Oscar would have lots of room to dry out and shine. Here he is in his "before" location. He had been pristine for years but these last two winters have taken a toll.

Here's the ceanothus on removal day. This whole bed had become problematic with grass growing in it and a sideways rosemary there center stage.

FM examines his foe

And with gusto we both cut, dug and pulled. Okay, FM did most of the heavy lifting.

The base of the largest of the two, this was from a 4" pot in 2017.

That's a lot of stickery debris.

FM bags a three-headed ceanothus. His shovel is his weapon. His loppers always at the ready. 

It already looks so much better.

Now for the Oscar relocation project. He was not that difficult to dig out, surprisingly, but the soil he was in was kind of smelly, as in really wet and odorous. The dangerous part of working with Oscar is the incredibly sharp barbs at the top of each leaf. We both have scars from agave barbs, and Oscar has a big set. So it was careful, careful.

The pink bucket is to protect a little plant while we were digging. FM is pulling out one of Oscar's pups. 

FM twisted Oscar out onto a blanket so he could be delicately lifted to his new home. FM says PU that was a stinky wet hole. No wonder Oscar looked so unhappy.

On the other side of the berm I dug a new home for our favorite agave. FM bought a pickup load of gravel just for this project. There's a lot of gravel in there, a deep hole and a good slope so hopefully Oscar will recover.

Positioning Oscar took time and care. Watch out for those barbs, FM!

Oscar in his new home. We know he's smiling!

From the back side. There's a lot of rot in there but I'm hopeful he'll dry out and I can clean him up later this summer, and then new leaves will continue to grow out of his center. The worst thing that can happen is that Oscar dies. If it happens, it happens. There's nothing we can do about it. We did save a few pups from him and I plan on potting them up so we'll still have him around so to speak. A world without Oscars is just not a great place.

Before

After

After with additional gravel. The scraggly plant at the base is an eriogonum, a native buckwheat that was swallowed up under a bunch of shrubs. I'm trying to give it a second chance as well. It looks pretty bad, but I'm willing to try until I can't stand it any longer. 

Here is the spot where he used to live, now graveled over and opened up.

Another un-fun project. Four Rosemarinus 'Huntington Carpet' did this. They had been really healthy up until this year, a second round of six months of winter finally did them in. 

By the way, FM has a new theory about seasons: Winters are now 180 days in length. Summers are 180 days. And, here lately, Spring is 2.5 days and Fall is 2.5 days. Total: 365 days. And in Leap Years, well, Spring and Fall are 3 days each. It works out. 

Anyway, out came the dead rosemarys. The soil they are in, although seriously amended with sharp gravel, was so wet it's no wonder they died.

The retaining wall is now free of brown, dead rosemary overhangs.

Before

After. You can see where they were by the moss growing on the wall.

Before, other direction

After. I am so much happier with this. The "sort of alive" ones went to the chicken yard and were planted in full sun, if they make it then great. The whole chicken yard is like that, full of bits and bobs that were potential compost but given a second chance.

One final image of our new cistern that FM hooked to the downspout on this corner of our house. But it's disconnected, you notice? That is because it's full! Yes, 2,500 gallons of water in this big jug, collected in just about a month of rain from one quarter of our roof. Now my next task is to keep track of how long this lasts me watering the garden. If it significantly reduces our summer water bill we are considering adding more, one under our deck, for example. Stay tuned.

So. Hooray for the sunshine, for the warmth (above 60 degrees!) and the rapid leap from bare twigs to leaves and hopefully flowers. The sky says summer but the garden is catching up from February, it's an odd juxtaposition. The flowers are coming, though, and they will be most welcome.

That's a wrap for this week at Chickadee Gardens. As always thank you so much for reading and commenting, we love hearing from you! What are your unfun garden tasks?