Walk around my yard

Snow is gone, and the ground is dry just enough to work. I’ve been watching the weather closely, and we just missed the heavy rain that is training over the south and up toward MI. Which means I’ve actually gotten out and worked it this past week instead of sulking at the window, watching it rain. 

I have a new space to play in this year, an adjacent back garden that has been mown, but neglected for ten years or so. I pulled out ten bags of leaves Tuesday/Wednesday, exposing bulbs coming up and whatnot.There is a real drainage problem over the entire yard. There’s no way for the water to get out but through our garage, which it does once a year or so. I’m accessing what I can do. There’s the mouth of an old alley from the 40s in the back that could reach our side drive, or possibly a gentle seepage through my side yard and down the drive we took out a few years ago. In the mean time, lots of weeds, leaves, overgrown ivy, and that nasty ground cover that you just can’t get rid of. Bags of it. I’m putting four bags at the curb this week that I can’t put it in my compost because just one root will start an entire plant.

Clearly it will be a season of ripping out and finding what I have to work with. I’m thinking of making the focal point of the area a fire pit. Maybe someday I can put an outdoor kiln there. If I could have my way, I’d be a potter when I retire. Turn my office into a studio. I can throw a mean pot, wether you believe it or not, and I miss the hum of a centered pot, the balance of gentle force needed to hold and shape. It’s probably why Strell was a potter. (First Truth, Hidden Truth)

My yard, though, looks pretty good, making me glad that I’ve got this new space to monkey with, otherwise, I’d be moving plants around in my yard. These guys have been in the ground five or six years now, and they have multiplied really well.