Jaci Dawn

This entire week has been balmy and (mostly) dry in the Pacific Northwest. I’ve been perusing books on flowers and perennials and sketching plans for my garden. Today was supposed to be the last of the balmy days as the rain is returning tomorrow.

Since I was released from jury duty at 11:00AM and I had half a day off coming to me, I decided to take the rest of the day and do something fun. It was hard to decide what to do as I strolled back to my car. (I parked on top of the hill near the Catholic church and walked to the elevator rather than trying to find parking in downtown Oregon City, so I had a pleasant jaunt. I even considered walking the promenade overlooking the Willamette River and falls, but since I did not have my camera with me I decided against that. That’s a walk for a day with a camera.)

I had t o come home to get my camera.And since I was home and the weather was balmy and I had this very long list of garden work that was supposed to have been done in October, guess what I decided to do?

I decided to deadhead all those plants that should have been cleaned up last fall: the peonies, the daylilies, the asters, the hollyhocks, the lavenders and the sage.

You might not notice much, but my peonies breathed a huge sigh of relief.

My beautiful mallow fell over sometime in November and was laying on top of the Spanish lavender. I had a spirea that died last winter that I never tried to dig out, too. And the sunflowers needed to come down.

Sadly, the mallow was dead, broken at the root. Happily, the spirea just pulled out of the muddy ground as did the sunflowers. I cleaned up everything else and I know the lavender breathed a sigh of relief.

By the time I reached this mess, I wasn’t certain I could fit the rest of the yard debris into the recycle bin. There’s another two asters, several peonies and some sunflowers yet.

WOW. the difference (to me) is stunning. And it didn’t take me very long, either. My peonies are especially thrilled.

The peonies are beginning to get the itch to grow.

Tender new stalks are beginning to push up from the ground.

I left all the leaves and mulch in case we have a freeze.

Then there are the faerie woods. Oh my. I had to disturb some of them and will probably have to rip out a lot of them come spring, but they are so enchanting. Can you imagine living under the canopy of those mini ferns??

I found a bit of petrified wood that I tossed out into my garden. I have so much of this stuff – pieces of petrified wood, agates, strange rocks… I am certain the wee faeries appreciate the little added beauty and the moss will soon claim the rocks.

Oh yes. there’s this. The mole vs. Murphy war. They had a truce when it was cold: the mold did a little damage to the yard and Murphy ignored it. But since the weather warmed up, Murphy decided to dig for the mole. He dug this trench one afternoon.

The mole filled it back in the following evening.

Don and I figure between the dog and the mole, we will finally be getting a real lawn put in. The rototilling is already done…