Our Nicest Day So Far

Yesterday was soul reviving. Our temperatures reached 18 degrees C. I spent most of the day outside, still cleaning up perennial beds (not quite done, but much closer now!). We have had a fire ban for a while now, so the old dried up plant stalks, spruce cones, fallen branches have been piling up behind the chicken run, and I added much more yesterday. But now, the fire ban is over, so some burning in the burn barrel will be happening soon.

I have a question for all the gardeners out there: What is the plant that you would banish from your beds, now that you realize what an unruly pain it is? What do you regret planting the most? Mine is lily of the valley. In fact, I don't even think I was the one who planted it. I completely ripped out a bed one time, digging deep to pull every last root or rhizome, or whatever nasty way it spawns, out of the ground. This plant has managed to grow and creep its way under our porch to emerge on the other side. It is now overtaking a different bed and is growing up amongst peonies, phlox, cranesbill, and other flowers. It will take another complete dig-out to get rid of it. I'm not sure I have the energy for that right now.

Oh well, that's the thing with gardening, there's always another project.

I was pretty satisfied with my work, a lot of it involving cleaning up the "rail fence bed".

As well, husband cut the lawn and started the process of filling in the remaining low spots and slices in our back yard from when we trenched for the propane line to be put in. This is our back yard. Every time I come out onto the back porch, the chickens rush to the fence at the front of the chicken run, thinking I'm going to bring them some food.

You can see the line in the ground from the trench. Those two beds in the picture are still to be cleaned up completely. There's a forsythia that's in bloom - a gifted few little roots from a previous co-worker that I've split and put into a different locations. Forsythia is such a harbinger of Spring.

So, we have a bit of a dilemma. We have a visitor. Well, not a visitor, really, more of a resident.

That is one of two holes that leads under our shed (which is more garage sized). I know it belongs to a ground hog because we've seen the ground hog. It is very healthy and robust. I just don't want it to become more robust on my vegetable garden when the time comes. We have a humane trap that we could use, but I'm concerned that this might be a mama ground hog. We haven't seen any young, but that doesn't mean they aren't there, somewhere under our shed. Anybody know when baby groundhog season is? Likely now, I would think.

Last night, with outdoor fires being allowed again, we set up our metal campfire "thing" (four sided, screen-in unit with a hinged side to put the wood in, and roast marshmallows from). The four of us had a nice time sitting around and talking and laughing and enjoying the exchange between our two fairly different children. It is the "long weekend" in Canada (Victoria Day) and there were a few fireworks set off in the distance that we could hear and sometimes see.

Today is supposed to be rainy, it's already a bit overcast as of 7:24 a.m. Maybe that's a good thing, as it will deter me from more yard work - I'm feeling muscles that I haven't felt in a while! I might bake a pie today, and with tomorrow being a holiday, I'm not feeling rushed to put together lessons for this coming week online. Happy May Two-Four to all my fellow Canadians. It's a different one!