The Weekend Yang and Yin

This may be the busiest time of the year for those of us actively dealing with yards and gardens, especially when it includes vegetables and aggressive management of existing plants.

There are always some things that might need serious adjusting (or removal), and this season was no exception.  We took out a group of camellias that had never done much for us and had produced a lot of litter and other problems.  M tagged our yard-work folks for that a couple weeks ago.

If only it was so easy..  In hindsight, I am ambivalent over who got the better deal.  The trunks and rootballs fell to me.  Axes, pry-bars, loppers, and all sorts of mean and nasty implements (apologies, Arlo G) were required.

But "we" got most of them out last weekend, and in celebration of our 34th anniversary, the last most-nasty-trunk, this weekend.

Meanwhile, I was also attempting to accommodate my more gentle side, cozying up to a sewing machine with a new project.  Perhaps I have blundered (some have said so) in getting more than one such project in the queue, but I concluded that was inevitable, both from watching the more-seasoned sew-ers around me and from an analysis of the tasks involved and their psychic payback.  Some of this is just dull work.

Anyway, my present fabric activity includes one now-quilted quilt in need of only binding (mercy, how many hurdles can there be!), a couple clandestine table runners with unspoken needs, another also off-the-record project that is just barely underway but also involves some new adventures and education, and another batik-intensive quilt-in-progress featured above, with major fabric work largely done, tedious small work on border maybe half done.

In this case though I was working off a pattern, so the border and binding are within reach.  I'm still pondering the backing - maybe an equally-complex quilt?

Gardening with Adversity

Discontent over cool, gray, dank weather here in the Pacific NW has become almost an epidemic.  So the idea that we would find ourselves with an actual weekend with highs forecast for over 70 both days sent a real ripple through the zeitgeist.  We had previously nudged 70 once a couple weeks ago, for the first time since October or something.

Mining that over-optimistic streak that I gather is almost a defining characteristic of our species, I have been raising eyebrows by planting out tomatoes (three last weekend, with waterwalls) and starting beans in pots in our shed.  Meanwhile starts of peppers, tomatillos, squash, pumpkins and the like from school plant sale have been getting tough love, being left out most nights to toughen up, anticipating their graduation to the garden.

Perhaps sensing (or more of that hope thing) what was coming, I mercifully had taken care of most of a garden demo chore last weekend, namely digging out the lower trunks and stumps of four large camellias and an azalea that we had grown away from.  This was no minor chore, involving shovel, lopper, pry-bar, axe, and eventually, trowel.  Did I mention lower back?  Several of the trunks cooperated reasonably well - I learned that the camellia has pretty brittle roots, though they can be enthusiastic as to the number of roots.  Fortunately, I had only one left for this weekend, and some "quality" time Friday and Saturday night after dinner and another 90 minutes or so spread over today got the last one out as well.  Naturally the last one was the worst.  Still some root materials to clear, including one with a cross-section of at least 4"x6".

But in between, with generous weeding and other assistance from spouse, I was able to get six more tomatoes in, three with waterwalls, three not yet.  Five tomatillos.  The first dozen fava beans.  Two sets of short sugar-snaps, joining the five prior, taller pea-plantings.  A couple dozen sweet pea starts.

All in all, probably a bit more than I had hoped to achieve.  Not to deny that I still have innumerable little seedlings entrusted to my care that need homes to be cleared for them.  But we do this by increments.

No 70's forecast for the workweek from what I recall.  It may be some time before we see much growth on some of these little ones.