Jaci Dawn

This weekend was like summer’s last call (although summer actually ended last weekend). I had SO.Much.To.Do.

Isn’t that what every gardener says?

I wrote down three goals for this weekend: squirrel feeder, plant bulbs, transplant one peony.

Working backwards: the one peony has been growing under what is now becoming the Hawthorne tree. My husband insists it is still a “bush”, but at over 6′ in height, I’m thinking it is a tree.

I dug up the peony as best as I could (there remains a root still under the Hawthorne). I replanted it in four places in the front yard. Do you know that I have NO peonies in my front yard? I have this incredible peony garden and not one single plant is in the front yard! Well, that changed tonight.

I also planted several Alyssum bulbs in the back yard and several new tulip bulbs around the yard. I moved some ground cover to the front yard.

I also moved several sedums. We’ll see which ones grow. I planted them under my older lilac bush and built a little fence around them out of rhododendron branches.

This poor lilac needs to have the fir tree above it trimmed down. I moved the lilac to this place when we moved in, not realizing that tyhe neighbor’s fir would outgrow and outshade the lilac. The neighbor is OK if we trim the tree up – it grew by accident. If my husband doesn’t get out there with a ladder, I will. The lilac is too precious to lose. It is a double-floret lilac colored bloom.

I also put up my squirrel feeding station. I had to take the feeder down last winter due to the brown rats that had settled in under our house and which were using the feeder as their own. I hope the new station is not rat-friendly.

On a side note… Last night, I hauled the trash from the loft out and when I opened the door to the yard, I was confronted by my husband and Murphy. Murphy had his jaw firmly clenched, but two little white paws and a naked tail were hanging loose outside his mouth. He was not letting go. I turned back inside and retrieved a slice of lunch meat which I waved under Murphy’s nose. He gladly dropped the juvenile brown rat on to the deck and ate the lunch meat. My husband quickly disposed of the (mostly dead) rat.

Good Murphy. I think.

At least it wasn’t a Norway rat.

Tell me I am weird and I don’t care. I like my cheap croquet fence. I planted bulbs behind it.

I also installed the day bed frame as fence in the garden. I like how it looks.

This is how we ended the weekend: a fire in the fire pit. 🙂