So after I had finished the house plants and some lunch on Sunday, I headed out to tackle the New South garden I was making. I made it down as far as the light colored splotch, digging out roots and stones and construction trash.
But where the splotch starts, the weeds got a lot thicker. There were also some snow drops that had been under the pallet of stones. I transplanted them at the end of the garden. There had been a daffodil along the foundation at the other end. I attempted to dig it out but it went down so far (about 16”) that I ended up breaking the stem. I did get the bulb out and planted that, but it will probably die.
I decided to clean off the weeds, stones and construction trash on the rest of the garden and save the digging of roots and stone removal from the soil for another day.
The bulbs I transplanted from this area in the Big garden have grown a lot. But many of them had developed yellow tips. So I went out to the garden to see how those left behind were doing.
I was glad to see they were well behind those transplanted. They also have yellow tips. This might be because they spent 2 years in pots. I did feed them, but they aren’t meant to live in pots. This is Bulb Area #2.
Bulbs do not like to be transplanted after they have started to grow. I am trying really hard to get these transplanted before they get much bigger.
Next I checked the tulip bed in the Big garden and was glad to see they are a little behind those I transplanted. I must get to them soon!
This is Bulb Area #1 in the Big garden. It had been frozen solid when we uncovered the other 2 areas 2 -3 weeks ago. My intern had come out last week and uncovered it when my back was bad. You can see it is far behind the other 2 areas which is fine with me.
That unidentified patch in the Big garden we had found 3 weeks ago is in fact snowdrops as suspected. The bulbs must have been in the chrysanthemum roots.
This is the 1st Fence garden where I had planted some of the bulbs a couple weeks ago. They are at the bottom of the photo and the established ones above. None have buds on them.
I had seen snowdrops up in the West garden so I went to check on them. They were lush and flowering and covered with bees.
I tried to catch some on the blooms but they were busy zipping from one to the other. I did get these 2.
Along the foundation in that garden there were several coltsfoot flowering.
Also in the West garden the daffodils were coming up and they already had buds! There are 3 in this clump.
In other news, while 66% of the United States is experiencing moderate to severe drought, New England has been mostly spared. Our area on the top left is just considered abnormally dry.
The $30,000 septic system installed just 18 months ago failed twice last week. Fortunately it was a simple fix by the contractor, floats suddenly failing to work properly. But right now I have this in my New Herb garden, until I’m sure it’s really working.
On Monday I will get the laundry done. I plan to work some more on the sewing room, then head to the gardens as soon as it’s warm enough. I need to finish the New South so I can plant bulbs in it.
