Last Week we had several very warm days, in fact I think it was Friday last week, we were the hot spot of Manitoba at +7 C. Most of our snow has melted. When I look out, I see grass, flowerbeds and a little bit of snow here and there, but seriously - it looks like late April in my yard - not Feb 3rd!
This weather is really messing with my mind. I want it to be spring so I can get outside and get to work. There is much we want to do well before it is time to plant gardens. I have lists that keep growing as well as frustrations over how those lists will be attended to, come spring.
My back yard where the vegetable garden is located is 50'x54'. It is this space that I am going to be concentrating most of my gardening efforts on this year. Except for the big vegetable garden, this space is an almost clean slate. Bordering this space are 3 ginormous dying spruce trees that are taking up 6' x 54' of my yard. They are going as soon as someone will remove them.
Over the winter these three trees along with the three in front of the house have deposited about 2" of dead pine needles over almost every square inch of my property, which is I am sure creating a yard of acidic soil where not much is going to want to grow. My first nightmare!
The second nightmare, is the 54' of Karagana hedge that runs in front of those big trees in my yard. Once the spruce trees are gone, these old hedges will have to be moved back to the property line about 5.5 ft, or I will have to remove them completely and replace them with a new hedge at the property line. Most likely it will be the second scenario.
My third nightmare comes in the form of a fairly large garden shed shaped like a barn. It is nice, and useful - but it's in the wrong place! At the moment it stands beside the garage, well into the yard. Every time the garden tractor (which lives in said barn) is used it has to be driven across well established grass and lawn.
I am not sure why the shed was placed where it is, but I am VERY sure that it is somehow going to be moved adjacent to the driveway where the tractor can have access to pavement instead of my pretty grass. Just because it is a "lawn tractor" does not mean it is going to be used on that piece of lawn - no sirree - that lawn gets cut with a lawn mower from here on in! The shed will have to be moved - but at the moment, we are at a loss to know just how that is going to be accomplished!
Once the trees are down, and the shed and hedge are moved, then I can get going on the plan I have made for that back yard. I am building a patio area adjacent to the side of the garage, for our BBQ and patio set, surrounded by beds of flowers and maybe a couple of shrubs for privacy.
I have a nice grassy area behind the garden that is bordered at the back by yet another beautiful full hedge. I want to build a small brick wall to imitate a small walled English garden. I will put some flowering perennials there, perhaps a rose bush ( I have a few that need to be moved) and my pretty old garden bench. It will be a lovely place to take a book and sit and read, or watch the birds, or just dream of gardening and nature itself.
I have one more thing I want to accomplish out there this spring, and that is to build or acquire an out-house-size garden shed. I want something small enough to disappear in the landscape of the garden, but big enough to hold all my gardening tools and equipment. Something like this...
I would even covert and old out-house - if I could find one that still was solid enough to work with!
If I can accomplish all this by the long weekend in May - that will be the first one of my lists of things to do outdoors this spring - accomplished.
Then it will be on to the next list!
To be continued!
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