Did some gardening yesterday

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Yesterday was so beautiful! Here in the Carolinas it’s easy to tell that spring begins tomorrow. The weather has been so wonderful. Today it’s supposed to reach the mid-seventies. . .I am just loving opening our windows and being able to enjoy being outside.

All three of us spent some time outside yesterday afternoon working in our yard. Stephen began tilling the garden, I decided to tackle our daylily bed, and Little man – he just rode his tractor around and generally tried to “help” both of us. It was a blast.

When he started tilling, Stephen discovered that even though the garden had not been touched in a year, the ground was still really soft and easy to till. He had initially been concerned with getting the ground tilled and ready to plant with his new work schedule. We usually like to plant right about this time of year – so he wasn’t wanting to waste any time. I had mentioned using the tiller myself to help him out, but up until recently he hasn’t let me. Since the ground was so soft, he showed me how to use it. I was surprised at how easy it was to till, though I’m sure the fact that the ground was still damp from last week’s rain was a major factor.

I’m really looking forward to seeing our flower gardens this year. The daylily bed looked like it had not been touched in the entire year we were gone, so I spent an hour or so weeding it and raking out the dead leaves. It should be packed with color this year, because even last year it was ready to divide. I imagine we’ll divide them this fall when everything is done blooming. I’ve been looking forward to dividing them because of all the new plants we’ll have to plant somewhere else.

The iris garden looks really good so far too. I planted it too late in the season two years ago, so it didn’t bloom that year. Then we were gone this past year. . .so I am anxious to see how they look in bloom. All the plants in that bed were given to us – some from a fantastic freecycle find and some from a friend who was dividing hers – so I have no idea what colors are in there. I love irises and hopefully it will be beautiful this year.

We also discovered what great neighbors we have. Several days ago, I was looking through the hibiscus bed (it’s around our porch) for the plants. They’ve grown huge over the years, and they are my absolute favorite flower that we grow. I started them from these seeds and they have just done phenomenally. There were a few gaps around the porch, where some of the plants I originally set out hadn’t survived, so I was checking where they were so I could see where to put new ones. I couldn’t find some of the plants, but I just figured that they had been trimmed back really close to the ground. I was wrong.

The neighbor lady came over yesterday to tell us that she had come and dug some of them up while we were gone. Our tenant had cut some of them back so far that our neighbor was afraid that it would kill the plants, so she dug them up for us and took them home to keep them safe until we returned. I thought that was very sweet of her to do that for us. So while it will be more work to put them back into the ground, at least we can space them out a little better this time. There were enough plants that I figure I’ll let the neighbor lady keep one or two of them – she loves them and that’ll be a way to say, “Thank you” for taking care of them while we were gone. . .Then hopefully we’ll get more seeds and can plant them too. . .