Deja Vu

Best laid plans seems to be my theme song lately.  One of my goals for the yard today was do more digging to find the sprinkler pipe.  I preceded that activity with maintenance of my vegetable garden -- digging out weeds and spraying for bugs.  One of the tomato plants has had its leaves chewed to a lacy pattern.  New leaves not so much.  The other plants have not yet been touched, thank goodness. 

After that I made my way around the back yard, pulling weeds where I saw them -- happily, not too many.  A nice surprise was seeing a flower stalk with buds rising from one agapanthus.  It will probably bloom tomorrow and I'll grab a photo for posting.

When I arrived on the south side of the house -- where the hidden pipes are -- I decided I ought to fill the first holes I dug last week.  Then I decided to rake the ground next to the house and move dirt toward the foundation, trying to create more of a slope away from the house.  I took the time to also dig up more crabgrass.  If we don't get a souce of water to that area, crabgrass may be all that we have growing there. 

After all that -- about 2-1/2 hours' worth -- I realized I had had enough.  So, I was the cause of the plans going awry today.  The next opportunity I'll have for digging will be Friday. 

Don't forget to stop and smell the roses.... I did: a fully opened Mr. Lincoln rose behind the house.  It made my day.

Best laid plans

The slide toward summer is not as easy as I had predicted for the gardens.  The leaves of my small Japanese maple are drying out, the hot peppers are not growing well and may be under attack, one of the tomato plants looks like lace due to a small green worm I finally uncovered.  I have been spraying the vegetables but can't tell if it's working.

A pleasant surprise, however, is the new growth on the magnolia.  New leaves are appearing and what looks like flowers budding.  The rain has helped other new plantings like the ixora and blue daze in the front yard; I hope it continues.

I'm really excited about a new garden space we have.  My husband sold his boat and gave away a car frame that he'd stored in the side yard.  So now I have a space at least 15 feet long by 10 feet wide to experiment with.  I already have some ideas -- one of which is planting a cherry tree -- but it will be a long process of preparation.  First on the list is finding the sprinkler pipes on that side.  Years ago, Jim capped at least one, possibly two, sprinkler heads so they would not rain well water on the trailers and vehicles.  I can't consider planting in that area without a source of water, so I could spend the next months digging, especially when I can only manage 1-2 hours at a time, several days apart.  I already dug 2 holes and a trench 24 inches deep without any luck.  It doesn't make sense to me that the pipe isn't there but I must persevere.   Wish me luck.

I'll keep you all updated on that.

Don't forget to smell the roses (or whatever flowers tickle your fancy).