A Sunny Day Means Work, Work, Work

One of my spring gardening orders arrived yesterday. I knew when it happened because Charles called my office to ask whether he ought to take out the plants. "Yes!" I said. And then I spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about my lovelies, waiting for me at home.

Above are the three raspberries. They're a variety called Royalton, and are purple. They look pathetic now, but will perk right up. I planted them in that pot so they'd be happy while waiting. But Juno was unhappy outside today, and after barking like a fiend failed to rouse me, she decided that pulling these out of their pot and chewing on them a little would make the point. So I planted them (only a little worse for wear) while Iain took his afternoon nap.


These are my four lovely blueberry bushes. They're tiny. Weensie. Teensy. but quite healthy-looking, and I expect great things. I planted one, but the soil where I put it was atrocious. Really, really bad. It was essentially solid clay. So I'm going to nurse them along in their little pots and plant them into my raised bed once the soil is in (this weekend). I figure 10 inches of great soil will help them build their muscles. When they hit the actual yard dirt, they'll have a head start to bust on through it.


These are my trees. Bare as a stick. In fact, they look a lot like the walking stick Charles found for me when I slipped and fell and broke my leg in Devil's Canyon. With that stick, and 150 pounds of anxious dog, I hiked 3 miles uphill! So it was a good stick.

Our super-helpful lawn guy, Dave, came by this evening and planted them for me. Our soil is so hard that I'm literally unable to dig into certain parts of our yard (picture me jumping up and down on the shovel. Picture me as the girl who, as noted above, fell on her own leg and broke it. Walking. Call me Grace.). So now I have two tiny trees, bravely soaking up soil amendments and tonight's rain. And in a couple of years I should have black cherries and apricots!

Over the weekend I visited Lowe's, where I got a bunch of things for our raised bed and two impulse purchases. The other one was a bunch of grass seed (I'm crazy like that) for the lawn. But this one was 3 little pots of an interesting ground cover I haven't seen before. I'm going to toss that puppy into the garden somewhere and see what happens. The leaves are green/purple and the flowers are tiny bits of lavender.

And, finally, here's Charles's lime tree. It's as ready for spring as I am. Last year this little tree produced 8 limes for us. They were powerful. So I'm looking forward to this year's crop. Picking citrus off of your own tree is a little taste of California for us. Add sushi and some smog and we'd be right at home.