Would You Rather?
Yesterday I spent the morning working outside, edging a new garden area and getting it ready for a cover crop. When it got hot in the afternoon I decided to stay inside spring cleaning the living room and cleaning the floors in the rest of the house.
When I was mopping the laundry room I noticed that the floor could be stripped and rewaxed. I tried to think the last time I’d done this task and I couldn’t remember, it’s been at least 2 years. I had to chuckle because I said, “Oh well, it looks OK and I don’t mind that it’s not shiny.” Six or seven years ago I stripped and waxed the floors every couple months. The floors were vacuumed and mopped several time a week and my house was really neat and tidy all the time.
The truth is that as much as we’d like to do it all, we just can’t. When we start a new hobby the time needs to come from somewhere. Now that I spend a lot of time gardening my house shows the change of interest. The gardens are much nicer and bigger than they used to be and the floors aren’t as spotless.
The house still gets cleaned, but it goes longer between cleanings, especially if we haven’t had a rainy day. At this stage in my life, I’d much rather have fresh tomatoes than a bright white freshly waxed floor.
So, what about you, would you rather clean or garden?
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How’s That Chiots?
It’s been a while since I’ve given an update on Lucy the garden namesake, I thought you might be interested in one. For those of you who are new, a little over a year ago she tore her ACL and wasn’t able to use one of her legs. We chose to take the least invasive method for treatment. No surgery, only therapy and dietary supplements.
She’s slowly gotten better and better and seems to be almost back to normal. She still can’t do really long walks, but she loves shorter ones. She’s also finally able to run a little bit this spring. She’s really enjoying the freedom of being able to follow me around the gardens again. Last summer she was still on limited mobility so she was only allowed to be outside if she was chained. This spring she’s been following me around as I work and is have a great time chewing on sticks and sleeping in the flowerbeds.
She just turned 8, so she’s far from the ornery little 10 pound chiots we brought home in a box from the pound so long ago. I remember her digging up all my plants, ripping out my clematis vines and running around the gardens like a crazy dog for several years. When she hit 2 she decided she was all grown up and became the best dog ever.
She isn’t destructive in the gardens any more, except for the occasional use of a flowerbed as an actual bed. She’s quite a nice gardening companion.
Do you have any gardening companions human or of the animal kingdom?
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Chistmas Gifts in the Garden
Mr Chiots and I don’t have children, but we have 3 nieces and a nephew (my sister’s children). You’ve probably seen photos of them if you’ve been reading this blog for a while (here are some more of their Christmas photos if you’d like to see them).
For Christmas they made me mosaic stepping stones for my garden. I’ve been waiting for the weather to be nice enough to put them out. Since it looks like the hard freezes are over, I put them in the garden yesterday. One of the stones has their names on it and the other is a small flower shaped stone. Both are jeweled with colorful pieces of glass.
These will be perfect to put in the garden to give me a place to step so I don’t compact the soil. I’m not traditionally a garden ornament kind of person, but I do love these.
Do you have any decorations/ornaments in your gardens?
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Happy Easter From Chiot’s Run
No need to spend hours coloring eggs when you have ones this lovely from the local farm. Here’s to a free-range pastured local holiday!
Happy Easter from Chiot’s Run!
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Lovely Hellebores
I’ve always wanted to have some hellebores or ‘Lenten Rose’ in my gardens. They’re fascinating plants, perennials that bloom at a time when usually only bulbs are blooming. Last year I finally bought one from my friend Scott from Working Gardens when I went to his plant sale last spring. I’ve been waiting for them to bloom. I was super excited 2 weeks ago when I noticed the blooming getting ready to come out.
Then last week they came out beautifully. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of green flowers, and this is one of my new favorites.
I’m always happy to find a plant that thrives in shady gardens. Since I have so much shade I like to find things besides hostas that I can include in my gardens, which is kind of funny since I have a friend that loves hostas of course has a super sunny garden and wishes he had more shade so he could grow more hostas. I can’t wait to get a few more hellebores for my gardens.
Do you have any newly acquired plants you really like?
or don’t like?
