From commentor Lyrebird:
I got inspired by Ozark Hillbilly’s post with his great photos of seed packets. I definitely needed inspiration because we were still under some snow then, with just a few green shoots showing against the warmest wall of the house. My photos are not as well composed, but maybe they will bring some hopeful signs of spring nonetheless.
.
I ordered some tomatoes and some nasturtium seeds. Only one Mallorcan tomato seed has germinated out of 6, but the Peron and purple varieties are going strong.
The nasturtium seeds are doing pretty well. Based on this one haphazard attempt, I can say that I have had slightly better luck with High Mowing Seeds from Vermont, but the Baker Creek folks do very good work, and I am happy to try out their stuff.
Of course it’s more fun to go to a plant store in person, but some of us live off the beaten path. I have ordered plants from Prairie Nursery, and Prairie Moon also offers some of the same plants. Am getting two kinds of milkweed, some Mountain Mint, and a few other things to try to keep pollinators around for those tomato plants.
***********
For most of the year, I’m not a big fan of yellow flowers. But the fireworks explosion of forsythia blossoms at the dreariest part of early spring always lifts my spirits!
What’s going on in your garden (planning), this week?
opiejeanne
Thanks for sharing. I haven’t planted much yet in our garden, but our tulips are just hitting their stride.
I love forsythia. My niece bought a house last year and she wanted to plant Scotch broom but it’s a noxious weed here so I bought her a forsythia for her garden.
One of the ladies at the nursery thought the name was “For Cynthia” so now we call it that sometimes.
JPL
Lyrebird, Please send us pictures of your bounty. I love fresh tomatoes but this year I’ll probably buy at the local stand. I still have spring cleanup to do.
Mary G
I love growing things from seeds. It’s a real miracle. Also love the six-week progress from snow to daffodils!
Barb 2
Earth Day
The first Earth Day was a big event at San Jose State University.
Senator Gaylord Nelson was a 1939 graduate of SJSU and the mastermind behind many earth friendly laws.
Way back then we knew that unless drastic changes were made humans were going to kill earth as we knew it. The student union was filled with educational displays about a catastrophic future. The Washington Post Magazine today is filled with articles about sea levels raising, glaciers melting, storms getting stronger and forests dying. Not unlike what I learned about in 1970.
Of course, Trump (the know all on all subjects) says he doesn’t believe our Government Scientists. Impeach him just on this immoral leadership.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?
Lyrebird, nice pics! My early daffodils are just beginning to bloom.
OzarkHillbilly
I put my maters in the ground last week: 3 Mushroom Basket, 3 Wood’s Famous Brimmer, 2 Pink Brandywine, 4 Amana Orange, 4 Green Zebra, 4 Mallorcan, 1 Yellow Pear, 2 Bumble Bee, 2 Amish Paste. Some of the strongest plants I’ve ever grown. I did something different, too bad I have no idea what it was. I usually have more Grape/Cherry maters but of the 4 Yellow Pear starts I had, 1 didn’t make it, 2 I gave to a friend who, after I made the mistake of giving her an extra last year, requested more this year. None of my A Grappoli D’Inverno from last years seeds made it :-(. I had started 4 Orange Icicles to go with 4 Amish Paste and ended up with just the 2 AP. Not near enough paste tomatoes for me so I went up to the MFA and got 6 Romas to fill out my canning needs. Picked up another Brandywine too.
The Mushroom Basket and Woods Famous Brimmers are both new to me so I’m looking forward to seeing how they do. Really excited to find the Mallorcans, I’ve been looking for them for some time. Last year none of my Green Zebras made it so their return makes me very happy (I loves their citrusy flavor and neon green flesh).
Got a couple of dueling Barred Owls outside my window right now. All is well in Ozarkistan.
raven
Nice pics. Lots of things have passed blooming here but much more to come. I suspect the sunrise from Stone Mountain will be spectacular this morning.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: One year I grew green zebras and they do have a magnificent flavor.
OzarkHillbilly
Lyrebird:
Nice to know I’m good for something. I’m going to tell my wife you said that.
raven
An ongoing series of bomb blasts struck luxury hotels and churches across Sri Lanka on Sunday. At least 140 people and 560 have been injured in the coordinated terror attacks, which have put the entire country on lock-down.
The first wave of attacks struck at the heart of the country’s minority Christian community during busy Easter services at churches in the cities of Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa on Sunday morning.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: If I had to pick a single favorite, and thank dawg I don’t, they would probably be the one.
JPL
@raven: Betty put up a post below. It’s so sad.
Raven
@JPL: sorry
JPL
@Raven: Some horrific incidents need repeating. I’m sure that trump will tweet his regrets soon.
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: @JPL: If only there’d been a good man with a gun…
Mel
@OzarkHillbilly: Yellow Pears are my favorite. Our neighbor’s daughter used to love to eat them straight from the vine when she was just a little thing and would come over to “help” with the garden. She called them “the yellow bells”.
My grandfather always grew them, and saved seeds got passed down year by year.
Baud
How do you say Rupert Murdoch in Ethiopian m
Mary G
@JPL: I was going to say no, because it’s brown people from what he considers a shithole country. But if it was Muslims at fault, he’s going to use it for propaganda and more.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mel: When I’m picking tomatoes, it is really hard to put a yellow pear in the basket. You know, it might get lost down there with all those great big bully maters. I’ll just put it here, in my mouth where it will know it is loved and cared fo…
Lapassionara
I am fighting weeds mostly these days. Does anyone have a strategy for dealing with wild violets? They are multiplying across all of my front beds. They look pretty in bloom, but if I don’t slow them down, I will have nothing but wild violets.
OzarkHillbilly
@Lapassionara: *Book advice*: plant stuff that can compete with them. And contrasts.
*Book advice*- Covering Ground – Barbara W. Ellis
I picked up my copy at the MO Botanical Garden. A very good book that helped me look at things differently.
Lapassionara
@OzarkHillbilly: thanks!
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yellow Pears are among my favorites too. I like that they are low acid and their size is perfect for salads or — eating straight from the vine.
However, I have been having big trouble with them for two years. They get wilt or something. I even tried to grow them in a SATBY Box and they still went limp. Sad!
My current favorite (for three years now) are Rutgers.
OzarkHillbilly
@Lapassionara: I had something pop up in one of my sunny beds last year, rather delicate foliage but just taking over that bed. BUT… The day lillies don’t seem to mind it at all (yet anyway) and neither does another bulb (which I have forgotten it’s name of course) appear to. I have some blazing star there that has yet to pop above the growth but I am betting it won’t care either because I suspect this “weed” is shallow rooting.
Immanentize
I was out yesterday clearing leaves and trimming trees. I have a big limelight hydrangea — now 7 feet tall and wide — that needed to be thinned out to get air to it’s core. The “For Cynthia” (love that!) are afire. I also have a half dozen red tulips up.tgat are going to be my Sunday centerpiece.
As I was raking and cutting back last year’s old dead stuff. I found my African Iris were already poking up. That is early! Also, some volunteer iris are on their way. All told, a good start.
satby
@Immanentize: satby dozed off between her last comment and this one. If I remember, late wilt struck a few of my plants that year too. Cooler wet weather helps the spores spread. I didn’t know then but there’s a site you can watch to see if there’s an outbreak in your area, and this article here talks more about preventing it.
Immanentize
@satby: Thank you! I worry the wilt will forever be with me.
satby
@Immanentize: I continue to try to finish murdering my forsythia planted too near the house on both sides ?. Like wisteria, it keeps sending out new shoots. After I cut it down I should have tried to dig out the roots, which were at least 10 years old and big; but I just planted around the perimeter. So later I may have to just dig the whole foundation bed out and start over. Intend to do the same with the evergreens in front.
Quinerly
@OzarkHillbilly: ?
jeffreyw
My patio herb garden is doing well, we had a late frost that bit a few peppers that had to be replaced.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Thanx, I knew of all the preventive measures except actinovate. Another tool.
Immanentize
@satby:
Forsythia are persistent. I dug one out, (behind an air conditioning unit)…. Well I thought I had but I had to battle the root remains for a couple more years.
Roses. I mentioned I transplanted some volunteers, but two of them are hardy root stock, but not very nice roses. I am taking your advice — ripping those out and buying new.
But one is a beautiful lavender drift rose bush. I need to figure out how to propagate that one.
Immanentize
@jeffreyw:
Holy Moly! That’s beautiful! I love the redbud in the background.
O. Felix Culpa
@Immanentize: I have tried Rutgers several times, partly because my parents and one sister went there, but they’ve (the tomato plants) never done well for me, alas. Had wonderful results with Azoychka last year.
WaterGirl
Greetings from Chicago! (Aurora, actually !Happy Whatever-You-Celebrate to everyone!
@satby: My new neighbors (moved in last fall) asked this week about the forsythia that is right on the property line between our houses – they wondered whose it was. Theirs. Would I mind if she cuts it back so it’s not so big? I said “of course not”, but I believe I deserve credit for not saying “Halle-fucking-lujah.
Very pretty but evil, though not as evil as wisteria, which is also pretty. One year at the garden store, they were actually SELLING creeping charlie. Unbelievable. Unsuspecting people have no idea what they are getting into, which just seems wrong to me.
laura
I planted petunias, mulched and weeded yesterday and picked up oranges that had lingered at the top of the tree, too high for picking. Its covered in blossoms and smells lovely. Milkweed is sending up shoots and has is increased a lot over the year. The hollyhocks are staring to bloom and if I’m up for it after the Easter meal, I’ll seed start some nasturtiums and zinnias.
OzarkHillbilly
@Quinerly: Heya.
@jeffreyw: Boy, does that suck. Sorry you have to have that inflicted on your eyes every day.
WaterGirl
@jeffreyw: @Immanentize: So beautiful! Perhaps you would consider putting in a nice garden bench for us to sit on when we spend the day in your peaceful garden.
satby
@Immanentize: I may give up on roses other than the few that survived this winter. The ones that seemed to are shrub roses and possibly a knock out rose that’s ok but has no fragrance. The climbers I was counting on to beautify my porch column died. I even lost a few iris to the last freeze following a rain. They were alive and sending out shoots, now dead and the rhizomes rotted ?. Tough winter!
O. Felix Culpa
@satby: Thank you for this info. I suspect this blight might be what attacked my tomato plants two years ago. I’ll keep the preventative measures in mind,
WaterGirl
@WaterGirl: You take that back! You are welcome to join us on the bench as soon as you do.
Immanentize
@O. Felix Culpa: Well Rutgers were NJ designed for Campbell Soup, I think, and mostly then for the old New York farmers. Maybe my climate is more in sync?
satby
@WaterGirl: enjoy Aurora!
The only good thing about forsythia is that it’s an early spring bloomer right when you need cheering up after winter. Everything else about forsythia is bad. I confess that I love wysteria, but it needs to be policed and ruthlessly cut back if you’re going to try to grow it.
Ramalama
@WaterGirl: One of my brothers lived in Aurora. Near the casino. While at the laundromat, waiting for his pantalones to dry, he’d frequently order some tamales from a woman who took face-to-face orders from everyone wearing their mismatched clothing bits (hey, it’s laundry day), go home to cook up the orders, and deliver them piping hot. He said they were the best thing he ever ate.
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: Are you talking to yourself this early on a Sunday? ?
satby
@WaterGirl: you meant that for Ozark, didn’t you ? ?
O. Felix Culpa
@Immanentize: I’ll accept your climate explanation. Much better than blaming the gardener, ;)
Immanentize
@satby:
I’ve let one of my Forsythia plants (down to 2 finally) grow a bit too big. It’s time to cut all the woody parts to the ground and see what comes back.
My service berry tree (I trained it up) is also in bloom!
Ramalama
This time of year makes me very upset to read everyone’s show-off posts about flowers blooming. There’s still enough snow on the ground in there-here parts that enable my little bitey dog to walk on top of the snow (like he’s Jesus…of the tundra) and look through our windows. Disconcerting!
I’ve finally given up the wish of growing honeysuckle, lilacs, and roses. Honeysuckle looms large near one of our lakes, but the buds do not smell. Don’t know if it’s the bees, or the mountain earth, the chemical whatnot or the sumpump bypass terra eartha kitta, but only the beach roses have a faint scent. Down in Montreal, lilacs run wild, showing off, giving off their scent to any and all passersby. Hostas grow great here. Plus lupines. But they’re early bloomers. When the summer is in full heat, they’re gone.
Also gave up the idea of ever growing tomatoes. Once we embraced that idea and planted a couple different types of lettuce, we were flush with salad the entire summer and early fall. It was actually exciting as I enjoy rabbit food even though I was born the year of the horse.
debbie
Asked and answered.
jeffreyw
@Immanentize: Thanks! The redbud has worked very well in that garden. The snowballs are on an Eskimo viburnum.
jeffreyw
@OzarkHillbilly: Not to mention the torture inflicted when we walk down the drive to get the mail!
jeffreyw
@WaterGirl: Will this one do for you? https://whats4dinnersolutions.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/20190410_115243-1600×1200.jpg
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Can’t have. I am permanently relegated to the Group W bench.
Amir Khalid
A brief football update:
Manchester United are playing dreadfully at Everton, and are down 2-0 before halftime. This worries me. They seem to have faded back into their Mourinho-era funk, at a time when Liverpool need them to be strong enough to take points off Manchester City in their next match to give us a shot at the title.
JPL
@jeffreyw: It’s beautiful.
OzarkHillbilly
@jeffreyw: The horror! That is wrist slitting territory.
MomSense
@jeffreyw:
I’m so envious. I don’t even know if we have crocuses because of all the wet leaves covering every outdoor surface. We had an early snowfall and it never melted.
jeffreyw
@OzarkHillbilly: For creating a public nuisance? Sad!
OzarkHillbilly
@jeffreyw: No, for being a public nuisance. My 2 sons were bonus points.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: Ha! I see that I was, but I didn’t intend to be. I’ve read that it’s okay to talk to yourself, as long as it’s not an argument. I guess I came pretty close to that with my teasing “you take that back!”
@satby: Yes, I was talking to Ozark!
jeffreyw
@OzarkHillbilly: Are they on the Group W bench, too? There are disturbing implications, if so.
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
I was talking to a trucker last week. He had just been on this crazy odyssey of hauling seed potatoes from northern Maine all around the country. I think we provide a lot of the seed potatoes for the whole country. He described driving them to Ohio where they were unloaded, packaged, and then reloaded for Wisconsin. Then he came back and did the same thing a bunch more times but to other states.
OzarkHillbilly
@jeffreyw: One is my left hand, the other is my right hand, and neither knows what the other is doing.
Gelfling 545
Daffodils are fully open and the redbud & weeping cherry are getting ready to bloom. The flowering dogwood is usually a bit later but all my ornamental trees came through our very windy winter ok. (My gutters, not so much. The Gutter People are coming tomorrow.) I ordered 6 cayenne pepper “plantlings” from Ferry Morse which have arrived and are sitting in temporary pots for now. For some reason I can no longer find cayenne plants locally. I started some kale seeds indoors which I rarely do because the cat takes over my only sunny window but so far he’s left them alone and they have 2 sets of leaves so all is good. Some of the kale will get eaten because the kids like kale chips and I toss it i to stir fry but I mostly use it as an ornamental in pots. Those bluish leaves are gorgeous.
I removed the winter accumulation of gunk from the pond – in the rain yesterday, but it was bothering me so- and checked on the well being of the fish. They made it through the winter fine. It MAY stop raining this week long enough for me to start garden cleanup which I have been informed should not be done before temps hit the 50s steadily for the sake of overwintering pollinators and butterflies. Grandchildren will be here Wednesday so I may put my little press gang to work. They’re old enough now to be of actual help.
I’m thinking of cutting the rose that climbs over my arch to the ground for a new start. I meant to last year but time got away from me. Doing it now may cost me some bloom on the clematis that climbs through it but it’s looking ratty.
oldgold
Last year, truth be told, my potato crop was less than above reproach.
This year, determined to avoid last year’s mistake of planting them on the Fourth of July, revive an old timey family tradition and not let the uneighbors know I remain capable of physical work (they might ask me for some help), I stealthily spaded the spuds in under the light of the Good Friday moon.
Yesterday, aching from my midnight exertions, I trudged up to West of Eden to survey the fruits of my labor. Only to be greeted by my neighbor DeeDee Plorable and her new boyfriend Stewart Pid, Phil Anders having been booted for alllegedly having cheated with his wife. Stewart festooned in his red MAGA cap informed me that rodents had been digging in my garden.
Oh, well.
Amir Khalid
@Amir Khalid:
Manchester United continue to be abject, and Everton now lead 4-0.
OzarkHillbilly
@oldgold:
So he informed on himself? That was kind.
Immanentize
I’m making blueberry pancakes for brunch (because the Immp is a teenager). I am tempted to make them in bunny shapes which he loved when he was 5….
?
satby
Man, most of a pot of coffee drunk and still feeling sleepy. May not be that productive of a day if this keeps up.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Jumping jacks will cure it.
ETA: and by “it” I mean the urge to do anything. ;-)
NotMax
@satby
Coincidentally enough, just a few minutes ago included this among a small order of assorted goodies.
Immanentize
@NotMax:
I’m putting that in my Amazon wish file
TomatoQueen
An enjoyable footy weekend so far: TOON’s Ayoze Perez pirouettes, leaps, and pounces to his first hattrick, 3-1 against Southampton; proving the rule that any given team in the Prem can beat any other team, which rule is nearly always used to excuse ManU losing, Everton absolutely crushes United 4-0, during which Lukaku has the grace not to score against his old side; and I suspect Liverpool will have very little trouble with Cardiff City today, kickoff shortly. Arse game is on the stream side which is annoying as it’s against Palace,an unpredictable lot, also kickoff shortly.
In the garden, the heliotrope azalea, at about 8 feet, completely overruns the 7.5 foot holly. The red azalea next to it will start blooming one day after the heliotrope starts to fade, making one’s eyeballs twist. Owing to unspeakable arthritis in both hip joints I am unable to do much of anything but dream: bareroot columbines await planting by…somebody, and I have high hopes of a bright yellow foxglove returning soon.
NotMax
@Immanentize
One for Immp?
;)
satby
@NotMax: that might just lure me away from my snooty bone china ?!
debbie
@TomatoQueen:
A house in a very well-to-do neighborhood about a mile away was filled with massive, huge azaleas (white, red, purple) and rhododendrons (purple). I don’t know if there was ever a planned design and I know they were never tidily trimmed, but they were beautiful and a real highlight of spring. Sometime since fall, all of the azaleas were removed. There are a couple of very cut-back rhodendrons and a couple pathetic clumps of daffodils. A huge tree in the front yard appears to have been girded.
The yard is pretty much just barren. I hate these people, whoever they are.
Amir Khalid
@TomatoQueen:
I think the problem at United is the first team, whose mismanagement began during Sir’s declining years in charge. The run of poorly thought-out signings began during that decline, and has continued through all the managers since. Ole needs to break free of his Sir Alex worship if he’s to be the manager United need. He needs to make clear that poor performances on the pitch are not a good way to negotiate oneself a better contract.
frosty
@OzarkHillbilly: Just reserved that book from the library. I’ve got a parking pad at the top of my backyard with a slope that’s nothing but weeds, and is too steep to mow. I need something that looks good and outcompetes them. Looks like there might be some good ideas here.
NotMax
@frosty
Creeping phlox?
Immanentize
@NotMax:
YES! Graduation gift fer sure.
Thanks ?
Immanentize
@frosty: I can’t remember — are you in Texas? If so, Neil Sperry’s, “Complete Guide to Texas Gardening” is a must for such problems.
Immanentize
@debbie:
I have a big azalea — double white — in my front yard on which I pinned down some lower branches. They rooted, so I am distributing them across the back fence line. I’m hoping that one day I’ll have a white wall between the Japanese maples back there….
And it makes me sick to think the next owner might just rip them out.
StringOnAStick
I dragged my large self watering pots into position and put the potting soil back in them but it’s too wet to plant. I bagged it all up last to keep it from getting soggy but we had a lot of snow and where I stored the bags apparently had a lot of drifts, so soggy soil resulted. I really wanted to plant peas even though it’s a bit late here. The sudden onset of heat sometimes makes them iffy but my husband loves them so much I try anyway
I’m contemplating getting my other knee replaced in June so I’ll talk to the surgeon at my 6 week post-surgery appointment this coming Thursday. It’s not as bad as the other was but bad enough (he told my husband that one had much worse arthritis than the X-rays suggested and I’m sure that’s true for the remaining natural knee). We’ve met the annual deductible, my office will be closed for 3.5 weeks in June to move it, so why wait until next spring like I was originally thinking? I’m not yet fully functional on the first knee but the PT thinks I will be more than good enough by then. Then it’s just one year of trying to get fully back into ski condition instead of two.
Lyrebird
@JPL: Thanks so much! I may be too late here, but that’s a fun goal, to get some good photos of the tomatoes… especially because they’re supposed to be three different colors.
@Mary G:
@satby:
Thanks! Seeds actually sprouting is so amazing. I’m more of a container gardener than anything else, maybe from living so many years in apartments. I now have much more room to play around, though, and both sun and shade in different spots.
WaterGirl
@jeffreyw: Is that on your property???? If so, holy cow-ski! I will not only come for dinner, I will stay for the week just walking your property and sitting on benches. (Fine print: not just dinner, but all meals.)
Lyrebird
@OzarkHillbilly: Glad I could say something useful! Fun fact: although I’ve never met the Baker Creek guy, I have met some folks who have.
jeffreyw
@WaterGirl: Yes, it’s ours to hold and to mow until death do us part. We dug the pond a few years after we moved out here, it’s about an acre.
debbie
@Immanentize:
This town is a declared arboretum. Lots of very old, beautiful trees. I wish they’d extend it to established azaleas and the like, but I’m sure it would be un-American to even suggest it.
Anyway, your plan for the azaleas sounds lovely. I love contrasts like that!
J R in WV
Here in SW W Va, the redbuds have done a great job, but the leaves are coming on now, so the blooms are being concealed and will fall soon. Our remaining wild dogwoods (there is some kind of blight for those, dammit!) are doing great. The Service berry trees didn’t bloom this spring, for some reason.
The daffydills were great, are nearly all gone now but for a few late bloomers scattered in. We inherited old beds of double-bloom daffodils when we bought the old farm and shack, and when we moved into the 1994 newer home we built, we dug those beds and put them in along the driveway to the new house, up in the woods. So now we have more than hundreds along that drive.
Virginia Bluebells are doing well. White violets are thriving around the (le mort) pond, it has a leak and needs dug up and rebuilt, is about 16×8 feet between the front door and the cliff, is there because a spring formed the first rainy season after we moved in, it intercepts all that water and throws it away from the house foundation.
My cultivated Ramps (a slightly pungent wild leek common in the eastern mountains) are dong quite well. No blooms, but tasty spring tonic greens. I commonly buy ramps from roadside sellers, eat some, plant some. We can support a couple of meals from the forest floor around the house. Ramps were once ubiquitous but were harvested to extinction in may rural areas as people attempted to not starve during the depression events caused by unregulated capitalism. Still common (so far) in the higher mountains of WV, and I’m doing my part to reestablish them locally.
The moss covered boulders are glowing velvety green goodness, and the ferns all appear to have survived the winter, such as it was. Maidenhair ferns are the last to show. Japanese painted ferns are thick in one spot, a couple of tiny bits in other fern beds are coming along. Ostrich ferns, autumn ferns, locally common wild ferns, all doing well.
We bought a few trillium plants, we had a bunch that grew with Jack-in-the -pulpits, both of which have evidently moved on. They are repeating flowers by virtue of going to seed. The Jacks have pretty big seeds which move downhill mostly, and are spread more widely by birds. It’s been cool and rainy here since Friday, which was needed, it’s been pretty dry here.
That’s the spring wilderness garden report for this week. For Cynthia doesn’t seem to be a problem plant here, was a favorite among the family places in the old home town, we don’t have any here but some neighbors have enough. We make do with spring daffydills in various shades of yellow and cream.
We are fortunate to have close friends on both sides who garden in a big way, so we inherit fresh foods from their efforts. We live in deep shade with no space for actual food gardening, would need a serious fenced plot to do so… Stalag-style fences to keep out marauding vegan deer packs.
No One You Know
The pond’s due for its one-a-decade cleaning.
The abject failure of the pond vacuum in the face of cattails and waterlilies-gone-wild led to Plan B. Plan B was an ambitious, enthusiastic effort to move the equivalent of an 8×10′ “rug” woven of roots, silt, and river rock. It was like pulling the Sword from the Stone: clippers jammed and I damn near fell over trying to loose them. It could neither be manually hauled nor cut further.
Enter Plan C. I slunk back to the garden center and bought surfectant and pond weed killer non-lethal to domestic life, promising myself I would keep the pond an extra few inches low to avoid runoff and a donation to Riverkeepers for good measure.
Meanwhile, back at the pond, the cats were facing off with a visiting team of mallards.
We came back, stopped in our tracks, sat down to watch.
Team Panther tried both individual and coordinated stalking, but nobody wanted wet paws; and ducks are…relatively big. Especially when they hiss like geese. Team Panther retreated for some urgent grooming.
The female duck was so unconcerned that she went to sleep juuuuuust inside the pond margin. Her mate glowered at us all for several minutes…
Back out to the garden center for a tarp to cover the pond and keep future ducks out.
Wait for ducks to leave, treat water, place tarp.
Next day: ducks on parade on tarp.
The saga continues.
TomatoQueen
@debbie: Those people are blasphemers and must endure punishment.
TomatoQueen
@Amir Khalid: I always enjoy these things, as the press goes ga-ga and mourns a ManU loss or draw as if it were national tragedy. Ole let on, at least as he was quoted in the BBC report, that players’ heads will roll this time.