Yesterday, while contemplating my weekend MIA mode, which caused my to-do list to remain untouched, I set out to get something done.
The wheels in my head were spinning out of control – feeling the shame of my Type A personality, strangling my ability to think straight. I’ve got so much to do, where or where should I start?
I’d rather be in the yard, bopping around like the robins. They get sh*t done, just by hopping or flying from spot to spot. They make work look so easy.
They can blend in, or stand out, or just flaunt their fluff and get stuff done.
They don’t get sucked down into the holes of the weedy thoughts rolling around in the abyss – they’re sly like a fox. Shredding their way through the grass, sneaking up on their prey and making a score.
Not me, I just stood there and stared – on the fence as to which way to turn or what to do to feel accomplished for the day.
There are flower beds to tend to. Nope, that was not in the cards. The garden shall wait. Until nicer weather. I’m stymied as to how to handle this garden bed anyhow.
It’s perennials, but I’m not sure how to deal with the remains from last fall? It’s not as easy to deal with as the bed with the bleeding heart plant. That just grows well all on its own.
I sure hope if I flash this picture of what I planted, someone might chime in and tell me what to do?
Do I pull the stuff out of the ground, shred it, or just cut the tops off? The Tiger Lillies are suffocating under all of the debris. I need to rescue them so they grow like this!
I need to fine-tune my gardening skills to make it feel more like I’m comfortable in that wheelhouse. It is a lovely garden when it is all cleaned up and sprouting in the warmth of the morning sun. The tiny wildflowers sprouted up randomly for me last year. Each new one that appeared brought me such joy.
So my gardening task was postponed for now. Next, on the list – weed out the tax papers from 2014. I can do that, that’s easy, right? I like to time it with our annual shred away day at our banking institution. We can take in two boxes of papers to be confidentially shredded for free. Score.Me!
I pulled out an empty box from the garage, brought it inside, set it on the floor and went in search of paper items to toss in it. I arrived back to find Tizzie inside of it.
She was mesmerized as she sat there all comfy cozy. She was definitely in her full-on cat mode as she inspected it and gave it her approval.
She even took a short nap, until I woke her with my abrupt entrance with the other box of stuff to transfer to her claimed the spot. She’s not a fan of being interrupted. If looks could kill…
She jumped out and she was off to her next resting spot. And I got busy and filled the box.
Oh…such a great moment in time – to feel momentarily accomplished once again.
Post Inspiration – Dutch Goes the Photo – Wheel (a twisted take on it, for sure!) and Nancy Merrill’s Photo Challenge – Threes (This week, I want you to take three photos of the same subject, but from different angles or distances or whatever. This will give you the chance to look at your subject in a lot of different ways. This is the only rule, so have fun.)
PS – Okay, you gardener friends, do tell, how do I deal with that garden bed with the remnants of wildflowers? Do you keep up with your yearly shredding of tax papers? How many years do you keep before you shred? Does your banking institution have a free service too? Isn’t Tizzie adorable?
Chop, chop, chop. I take all dead material and burn it, and whatever comes up is this year’s crop. My brother is a very talented gardener, and he’s convinced me that plants can take a lot more cutting back than I thought. Make way for the baby greens, I say.
And while I’m burning dry dead stalks and leaves, I throw in the papers I don’t want to sit and shred, killing two birds with one stone. Although that seems cruel given your delightful pictures. BTW, your bleeding heart looks amazing. Mine is doing well this year, but clearly younger than yours. I had a beauty that the contractors on our last house project trampled to death, so I’m in the rebuilding stages.
Kitties do love an empty box, don’t they? 😂
So you chop the tops or you yank the plants? I’ve been so used to the irises and the lilies, so I know what to do with them, but the other flowers…not so much. Yes, my bleeding heart is doing well there. I’ve had it for 7 years and moved it once. And it survived! They seem to be a resilient plant – but not when trampled upon! That’s a bummer. I hope your rebuilding stage is successful. I love their buds when they open up.
LOL – That’s my preferred method for removing paper too. I like to burn the papers, but Mr. frowns on tossing the whole box or bag of papers on the fire. It smolders too much. When we can offload boxes at a time, I’m all for the ease of that effort when it’s free!
Tizzie lives for boxes. Dessy tries to fit into them, but she fills them too much and the sides break – now that’s funny to watch! 😉
Some of the dry plants come up and break off at the ground easily. Those that don’t make me nervous, so I try to cut them at ground level. Ultimately, though, they’re pretty tough. I have one mound that looks like yours, and it doesn’t want to come out easily. I will cut it close to the ground if it Ever. Stops. Raining. 😝
You’re inspiring me to just go out there and cut the tops off and see what happens. Wildflowers by name should be ble to survive in my wild garden, right?! We were supposed to have rain today, but it’s sunny (but cold 45 degrees). Thank you for the inspiration to tackle this task off my list!!
Don’t know much about gardening, but I know a cute cat when I see it, Tizzie is soooooo cute. 🐱
Aw, thank you – yes, she’s a cute cat – she knows it too!
Wish I could help you with the gardening, but that’s my other half’s wheelhouse! Glad you got a big box of stuff out of the way–that does feel good, doesn’t it? Now, you’re making me take a close look at my office: a big mess!
I’m thinking I should just be ruthless with the garden like I was with the paper. LOL – paper and writers go hand in hand – paper in all shapes and sizes is just so dang precious, isn’t it?
Why is a Robin on a fence like a Penny?
It has a head on one side and tail on the other side.
Good luck gardening Shelley 🙂
Successful gardeners I follow do not seem as attached to plants as I do as an amateur. They remove, relocate or pull up anything not healthy or suited to the environment. I am focusing on native plans which can be challenging. The plants I cut back came back this spring much healthier and fuller than they were last year. No advice. Just admiration for your efforts!
The way you put that is what I’ve noticed too about gardeners – they just prune without worrying too much about what might happen. I’m going to have to just dig in and see what survives. Thank you for the encouragement.
I love Tizzie! She’s adorable. Kitty hugs! 😻
Thanks, she appreciates the kudos and kitty hugs!!
😻
I give you credit for considering all the possibilities – planning is work!
Thank you! Yes, you’re right planning is work!
I have a friend who is a consultant and trainer. He begins his training sessions with a slide that says “The Planning IS the Work!”
I just made a post-it note with that saying on it so I could remember it. It is true – if you plan well, the rest is easy! Thank you for sharing it!!
I had to laugh at the kitty. They sure seem to love boxes. If your plants are perennials, I’d just cut out the dead stuff and let the new growth come out of the existing roots. This year’s plants might even be better than last year’s. I had a couple of plants sprout this year when I thought they were dead. Pleasant surprise!
I don’t have trees in my yard but my neighbors tree leaves usually end up in my yard so every fall I blown them all in a pile and put them in a heavy black plastic leaf bag. Then any flowers already dead gets broken off at ground level and put in the bag as well. Add in a sprinkle of moisture if leaves are very dry then tie off the bad and place in an out of the way place for two years. Not you have instant mulch. Once you get the system going you have fresh mulch each spring. In spring with more dead from winter, you can start a new bad or refill the one you emptied.
What is it about cats and an empty box? So funny. Once it gets warm, if ever, your motivation will return and things will get done as they should. I think this past winter and current spring have taken a toll on a lot of us. Be warm and safe.
Wow, Anita, that’s very resourceful of you! I should do that, too! Thank you for sharing your tips. I did take a lunch break and clean out a few beds. Breaking the task down in smaller increments may help me get it accomplished! Same to you – be warm and safe, and enjoy the change of seasons!
Free shredding day always motivated me. At one point we had 30 years of old tax returns and bill receipts. Overwhelming. Thinking is accomplishing something, right? (right!). The first step to action. No sense being impulsive. Great photos 🙂
It was a joy to take 4 full boxes to the shred away spot! There was a LONG line of cars, so it is a popular concept. When I had to take care of my mom’s papers from 40+ years accumulation, it was overwhelming. After that, once I got through ours of 20+ years, I’m determined to only keep 5 years worth. Period. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I appreciate hearing them! 🙂
Planning is the hardest part! Well done, it’s always a good feeling when you manage to declutter!
Yes, it is! Thank you, Marie, I appreciate your encouraging words!
Tizzie is adorable and I would have halted that project just so Tizzie could enjoy exploring the box. The garden beds are a pain and I’ve got the lava rock and river rock around the house foundation and mulch in the garden beds and under the front window. I am not sure what is a bigger pain, the millions of little elm seeds that flutter in between the rocks and mulch and sprout weeds (despite all the large boxes of Preen sprinkled liberally) or tackling the dead perennials. I would whack lilies and hostas (when I had them) close to the bottom and let them come up on their own. By now, my few remaining ones should have pushed through the earth – still MIA. I am quite disenchanted with the garden as I believe the roses are goners and the lilacs are just limping along. You have rabbits and should be glad your bleeding heart has lived. I bought bleeding hearts twice – my mom liked them and she had a Valentine’s Day birthday so got them as a surprise, but the rabbits stripped each “heart” and then ate the stems the hearts were on. I refused to plant this dessert for them anymore! I like how you tied the robin in to your seeming lack of getting things done … robins are low maintenance, so they have more time than you do. 🙂 Your garden pictures were nice as well – so you have luck with just seeds Shelley? I scattered some Forget Me Nots a few years ago and they went wild and return every year … just sprinkled them in some dirt, nothing fancy … the plants I gave TLC, bone meal and fertilizer bit the dust. I lost my touch and Mother Nature had an attitude.
LOL – Tizzie moves quickly between boxes – she gets what she wants out of them and then goes hunting for a new one. I have a huge bin of Preen, and was reading the label which said that you have to remove the weeds first and then spread it and to keep the animals away. I thought it killed the weeds that were there, so dang, now I’ve got more work to do. The rabbits normally leave my bleeding heart alone, but the go for the lilies and that really makes me mad! Yes, those Robins are low maintenance – and quite entertaining to watch this year. Yes, I mostly have luck with seeds. If Forget Me Nots spread, maybe I should get some of those. I planted some English Daisies last year and they never bloomed, but they lasted the whole winter in the same state they were when the first snow fell. They are growing now, so maybe this year they’ll bloom?! I’m fascinated with what does survive, despite my let it be gardening style. I do adore flowers, so we’ll see what happens!
It was funny with those Forget Me Nots … I should have taken a picture of them when I got home today to show you – we’ve having a torrential rain tomorrow, so they’ll not be looking so perky. We ended up having some sun and I took a ton of photos at the Park (goslings – must have taken 50 pics of them and looking forward to seeing how they came out later tonight). For the Forget-Me-Nots, I actually just wanted a little bit of color in between the bushes, especially at the back fence (after we got rats from the people behind, I no longer planted any annuals back there near the front edge of the garden, as I didn’t want to be touching the soil even with heavy gloves on – just freaked out). Anyway, I sowed a few packets of seeds and put some potting soil and Miracle-Gro on top – they grew in no time and back every year, no matter how cold the Winter was. In the past I bought those packages of wildflowers that come in a mulch like lawn patch for back there and they were sparse and looked more like weeds. I have colonial blue siding on the house, so that’s why I chose these flowers – they match perfectly. I had good luck with the hostas and day lilies but even lost them from the Polar Vortex about four years ago. Plus my black-eyed susans and coneflowers that I had for decades. They were so low maintenance – those I bought already established large plants to give them a good start. I’ve had shasta daisies and painted daisies – they were never healthy and always got either slugs on the leaves or some bug/worm that chomped on the petals, so I ripped them out. The pinky/mauve coneflowers will bring butterflies and grow tall.
I need to look into the ForgetMeNots! I love reading about all your flower attempts and hearing what works in the end. I love flowers that draw the butterflies too. We live in an open field, so there’s lots of sun so I have to be sure what I plant can endure the heat. For a very short growing period. It’s nice to experiment, though. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
You’re so welcome – gardening was a passion at one time and when I had the butterfly garden I researched a lot on what to attract them. I thought the butterfly bushes were hardier than they turned out to be. Planted two together and another one the other side of the yard. They were butterfly magnets and I had some butterfly stones for them to sun themselves on, puddling dishes for sipping water from and two butterfly houses for them to shelter in. I was really into it until the Polar Vortex. (Plus the rat issues compounded things as to enjoyment and the birdbaths and feeders had to be taken away.) My neighbor across the street had perennials all around her yard – coneflowers, black-eyed susans and daisies and she had the same plants for decades. She passed away so I don’t know if they are still there, but someone bought the house and it’s been renters for 9 years, and I doubt they’ve taken care of those perennials. She also had tulips and daffodils in the front yard for decades (they moved there in the 1950s) … the renters rototilled all the tulips at the side, but not the front and they still came up – they’re blooming right now.
While I love the flowers, I do know how much work it is to maintain a perennial garden. I have a dear friend that has one throughout her yard. It’s a lot of work. Gorgeous, but a lot of work. And, like you said, our weather and the pests can do a number on the flowers too. For now, I shall enjoy what survives!
That’s the spirit Shelley. I used to put a lot of effort into the annuals too, and my mom would say “save yourself the work – buy less flowers’ … later on I realized she was right. I liked those hanging bags of impatiens for example. I had three and a spare (which I kept the one spare in the backyard on the fence in case one of the three died or got leggy looking). I spent an inordinate amount of time on those hanging bags and the other annuals. Deadheading, watering (the bags 2X a day), weeding, fertilizing I switched to geraniums and eliminated the bags and started buying the hanging baskets and porch pots already made up as it got to be too much work. Then after I began walking, it was really simplified!
LOL – Mom’s have great advice! That’s why I do marigolds for the most part for my annuals. They are hearty, they tend to grow no matter what, and they provide seeds for next year’s crop all in one season. Flowers bring joy, but not cardiovascular health as much as a good walk does!
Marigolds are good as they have a strong smell that repels critters – rabbits for sure, maybe squirrels too. When my clematises were small, I planted marigolds around until they grew up the trellis and were sturdier. We had a decent day so a good day for a walk and did 6 miles … it was the Mutt Strut 5K event and the weather was perfect, toward the end it got very dark and cloudy though. No rain – amazing as it looked like the sky would open up any minute. The next two days will be soggy and cold. Hope Mother’s Day is better weather for you Shelley.
Ah, yes, that’s right about marigolds. I had forgotten that the rabbits don’t like them. No wonder they survive everytime I plant them. I love all the different color combinations they have.
Yay – 6 miles, that’s awesome! Glad the 5k went off well without a weather issue. We ended up having an okay weather day – so I got the rest of my gardens weeded and ready for planting in a couple of weeks when the frost should be gone. Thank you for your well wishes, I appreciate them!
I do like the Garfield Marigolds – they are huge and have used them in the past but I just used the smallest ones around all the plants that I didn’t want nibbled. I had slugs one year – oh, so bad. I was going through gallon jugs of Sluggo like crazy. I read to take a piece of flat copper andf place it around all the plants where you got slugs. The slugs have to pass over the metal enroute to the plant and their wet bodies make contact and they either die or back off. It also works to put pennies around (the old pure copper ones). The 5K was nice – I found a new place to walk which was a real plus. More dogs in one place than you could imagine! We have such a cold and ugly day here, the heat’s been coming on all day and just ugly for Mother’s Day..
Oh, my, that slug fest sounds horrible. I don’t think I have that problem. But will remember your tips if I do. Glad the race was fun! Sorry to hear that Sunday’s weather was poor. It was cool here, and partially cloudy – it ended up being sunny late in the day. No big storms, so that was nice. I hope today is nice for you to get out in it!
It was a very humid Summer that I had them – first and last time for having slugs and I never saw them as they come out at night or very early morning, but I’d see where they chomped on leaves or left their slimy trails all over. I also tried beer. Slugs like yeast and they like beer, so will crawl into the beer and drown. On Gardener’s Supply website they had these soapstone decorative mushrooms maybe 6 inches tall and you buried the bottom 1/3 in the earth and then poured beer in. There was an opening they would go into, then fall into the beer, then you had to dump the beer and dead slugs. It got very few slugs, but ants galore – another PIA project. I finally rinsed them all out, set them on the patio to dry and my neighbor liked them so I gave them to her for decorations. I just went on their website and they don’t sell them anymore.
LOL – oh, my, Linda the stories you have to share always make me smile. I kind of want to get one of those mushroom things though – but you’re right, beer attracts ants like crazy! I have enough ants.
My boss has told me that I have a story for everything and I’m not sure he meant it as a compliment! I actually had ordered either 8 or 10 of them. They came in a set and I had them all over the yard. When it was humid and hot the yard smelled of beer. The only place those little ants have really settled in this year is in my bedroom. I found ants in my bed and on my comforter and crawling up the outside wall. I can spot them easily on the pink wallpaper. I am horrified and they should be gone by now. We never had them when my mom was still here and I’ve only had them in Spring in the kitchen or bathroom – I really worry they will crawl in my ears at night. They have to be scaling the bed and walking along. I am beside myself.
Oh, my goodness, that’s a lot of ants! Have you tried Terro Liquid Ant Bait? If its the tiny sugar ants, that works great. I hate ants in the house too – ewe…crawling in your ear? Yikes!
I didn’t see any ants today and hoping it is more than the fact that we had no rain. I am worried about them in the bed – yes they are tiny, but I don’t see where they are coming from (the floor is wall-to-wall carpet) but they are on the outside wall for the most part. I don’t see why they couldn’t just crawl into my ear as I’ve found them in the bed. I tried at Meijer and the hardware store for ant bait – they were all out. I put the cornmeal out but it is not helping. It did in the kitchen around the sink as I left a drip from the tap. Laurie gave me a recipe but so far not helping. Her message was: “I make the boric acid traps myself, mix Borax with some honey and put some out on some wax paper. It’s very effective.”
Those tiny sweet ants are nasty. The only thing that we’ve found that works is the Terro. Sometimes it takes up to 12 traps for them to disappear. You should be able to order it online from Walmart and have it shipped to your door?
Thanks for the info Shelley – better yet that I can get them delivered. Wish I’d known that when I first found those ants I was hopeful they were gone but this a.m. I found one on the windowsill and even worse, I found a carpenter ant on the table in the kitchen. I don’t have carpenter ants (we had them years ago when a pregnant flying ant got in the house (likely on my clothes when working outside) and I saw it downstairs and it went into the fluorescent light fixture. I figured it got fried in there but no … we had Orkin in here for years and also cut down every tree on the property as well as removing all existing bark and replacing it with cypress which repels ants. We got rid of them only after our HVAC guy was in and saw some dead carpenter ants and said he used a pest control service for some of his rental homes … guy came in, found the nest (in the fixture), sprayed and no more carpenter ants until today. This was not a full-size thank goodness. Did you use this for your renters or you had them as well?
Yikes – yeah, ants can be a pain. We’ve had the small sweet ants at home, they usually look for moisture or run from too much moisture to dryer turf. The carpenter ants like moisture too. They will form beds in wet soil around the house or wet wood in the house. We’ve had both in our rentals. We’ve always been able to get rid of them on our own with store bought chemicals. The carpenter ants seem to go away with a good cleaning by removal of any debris right up next to the house, then spray the perimeter of the house (an exterminator can do this as well). My mom had this problem and she had the ‘bug guy’ spray in the spring and the fall to keep them away. The Terro works well for the small ants, but it may take a couple packages until you stop seeing them.
I had the bug guy spray for spiders and centipedes for years, but after we got our first canary we had to stop as they are susceptible to respiratory issues. I am going to go to Walmart Monday – I am picking up my race packet across the street from it. If they don’t have the traps, I will order them online. I appreciate the tip and outside my window is mulch – so they have lots of munching to do before they come inside.
Good luck – I hope you find something that works soon!
Shelley, I always love your posts. Your cat makes me smile so much.
Aw, thank you, Nancy – we appreciate your kudos and the opportunity to join in on your challenges!