It's pretty hard to beat the mild weather we've been having in the Bay Area lately. Mid 60 degree temps & lots of sun makes for pleasant days to work in the garden. If anything, it's too nice. trees are all blooming, plants are shooting up (especially the weeds) & the temptation is to start slamming those veggies in the ground, but we all know it's too early for that. Isn't it?
Last Sunday I managed some yard cleanup & cleaned out most of the containers that had remnants or weeds growing in them. I graduated from general cleanup to clearing dead/dying foliage from a few of the neglected plants. Then I saw the Cannas...
As you can see in the top-left, they haven't been dug up in awhile. The tubers were so overgrown that they were actually about 6" above the level of the surrounding concrete. I couldn't turn away, I just had to dig them up & split them. These are two 10" circular openings in the concrete & I dug up enough tubers to fill a 5-gallon bucket!
Back to the subject of possibilities; I have all these empty containers (buckets) & a planter strip that was decimated by the exterminators who tented the house last fall. I am resisting the temptation to start planting early, but it seems they are calling to me even as I write this.
I decided to put my energy to good use & knock out a couple projects that were nagging at me. If you've read my blog before, you've seen the bare trellis on my back fence. It just kind of stands there & blends into the background.
Well, none of the plants in this pic are still with us (except the roses), but the trellis is still hanging around. with nothing colorful to cover it, it definitely needed sprucing up. Now to figure out what all to hang on it.
And then I looked up & saw the trees... I haven't properly pruned my apricot tree or the IDKWTFII tree in several years. A couple hours & several scratches later, this is what I had...
The tools & spoils of my battle with the trees. Even with no leaves on the branches, the effect was big. Hopefully I did more good than harm. Would actually have liked to do more, but the IDKWTFII is stuck in the corner of the yard & actually hangs over my neighbors yards more than my own.
As I write this, the endless possibilities for all those empty spaces are rattling through my brain. Apparently I still have a few marbles for them to rattle around with. Besides my empty containers & planter strip, I also have a sort-of hell strip between my driveway & the neighbors. It's really part of their lot, but I take care of it out of self defense. It would be a great spot for a few artichokes I think. What do you think?
