She finally succumbed.

Spent three hours today weeding. So much weeding.

Made the salt crust (salt + water = salt crust), coated three of the four Stumps of Doom and tied plastic bags over them. The plastic is to (hopefully) keep the salt from leeching into the soil and generate enough heat to assist in killing the stumps dead, dead, dead. We shall see. I did take out three roots on the west side...

Discovered bunny damage on the cucumbers and one section of beans. Also saw a groundhog, both hightailed it under the deck. Hrm. I added another bar of soap to protect the cucumbers and erected an energy shield to repel the rodents, anchored to some rebar. We shall see. The basil has succumbed, I'm not going to worry about it.

My front flower bed has a dead zone in the middle. I need to fix that. Somehow. Any other suggestions for shade loving plants? Preferably pollinator friendly?

Tomorrow I extend the bottle border to include the rosebush. Oh yes, I cut back the dead wood on the rosebush. Half the bush is now gone, but the rest looks healthy and I should have a nice flower display in a week or so. I'm also going to start the carrots in the back bed, once I finish digging up the bulbs and rearranging the less then successful rock based weed suppressant. Might need to include that rabbit blood mulch Zahde spoke of.

In other news, a postcard advertising help with home repairs to reduce energy bills bore fruition. I'm going to have the basement spray foam sealed, the working front door replaced and the old front door properly insulated and sided over. I know the value of spray foam insulation and getting a locking, energy efficient front door will help SO MUCH with my old drafty house. Yes, it will be expensive, about 8.5 grand, but there is a payment plan and I have excellent credit. I will pay every month until tax time and then pay it off completely. The porch repairs, however they turn out, will be paid in full at time of my satisfaction. (^_^)

All in all, it has been a Good Day. I'm even almost done hemming a furoshiki cloth for my bento box. (^_^)

continues to thin out the broccoli, good gods broccoli, really?

tied leather strips to rebar and the chainlink fence for a cheap and dirty trellis for the peas.

has cucumbers sprouting!

didn't lose anything over the weekend!

actually thinned the peas and beans, transplanting the thinned plants to line the rest of the chainlink fence. Don't know if they'll take, it's all good either way.

has So Much Digging to do this weekend.

is having a hard time imagining creating a garden big enough for homesteading.

This weekend is slotted for digging out the hosta I missed last year from the front flower bed, as well as all the bishop's weed on the wrong side of the bottle border. In two weeks I'm meeting a contractor to get the front porch quotes for repair and replace. I also need to make the salt crust for those damned stumps. This gardening stuff is a lot to remember and work on.

Spent over an hour weeding and moving various stone chunks to make room for the azalea bush that Mama A absconded with Friday because she was afraid I would kill it dead like the purple flowers (impatiens? pansies?) Cuteness and she got me last year. It's now at Loooooo's house. I found out today when out to lunch with Looooooo. I sighed, accepted my mother in law's idiosyncrasies, and informed Looooo I need to borrow a good saw from Handy BIL to cut down one of the invasive trees and hopefully hack out enough of the other invasive trees so I can salt-crust them and kill THEM dead because they're destroying my porch and my lilac bush.

Still has beans and peas growing!

Still has marigolds sprouting!

Is tentatively hopeful the Irish Spring soap is working!

Was wished "Good luck and god speed" by ursulav!!

I gardened after the thunderstorm that knocked me down on the couch with a migraine. I feel another one trying to creep up on me. Tomorrow I'm going to build a trellis out of scrap metal planters and rebar and twine and plant cucumbers. *GLEE!*

accepts the fact she is NOT a goddess. Yet.
has what she needs to start seeds indoors.
finally found primroses!
will have marigolds too!
can actually see the top of her bottle border for the first time in four months!
has a clear of snow south side but still very frozen ground.
is looking forward to the experiment.
accepts the fact she will need someone to come check on snake and water seedlings while she's in FL.
is keeping mint, sage & oregano alive on her kitchen windowsill.
accepts the fact basil is beyond her.
notices there's a lot of accepting in this post. Um, yay?

has willing minions!

now has 2.5 of the 3 beds dug up!

has discovered ground bees!

Ok, I did not discover the bees. I was inside tidying up the downstairs. SLB found the bees. They're entrenched in the corner of the biggest flower bed, beside the downspout. He states boiling water should do the trick. We shall see.

IDK informed us he has hornets in the window behind his bed. Sure enough, there are! They've gone in between the screen and the window, so they can't get inside as of yet, not through the glass, anyway, but they're making a happy little nest in the space between. We can't get to them through the window, so next weekend a trip to Lowe's is in order for an extension ladder and hopefully the materials needed to wall in the doorway. I have been informed I can paint whatever I want on the inside. I'm not an artist. I write. But, we shall see. There's lots of stencils available.

does NOT like working in direct sunlight. Or getting dirt down her front and back.

has bruised, stinging and blistered hands from hacking away at the still-going stump. Sorely tempted to burn it, but it's right next to the house.

has 4 begonias growing! One's got two blooms on it!

has lavender flowers!

just might be getting those butterfly plants coming in too!

will need to go back out once the sun's more to the west to finish weeding the section next to the stairs.

also needs to put the stone slabs back up on altar.

just realized she cracked a nail pretty bad.

The nice thing about the earthship is that the garden will be inside, so weeds and pests should be much less of a problem.

actually got some work done today! After I had picked up SLB, bought groceries and came home, I decided there was enough daylight and no imminent rain, so I finished digging the border trench. I also transplanted two hostas, they will help fill the bed out nicely if the bulbs don't sprout. We've had some good rain, but I have not made sure they were watered every day and now I'm not entirely sure where they are. Ah well. I'm sure they'll be fine and if not this year, we'll be pleasantly surprised next year. Now to make sure I have enough bottles to finish. I'm pretty sure I do...

Cuteness has lamented the loss of the daffodils.

SLB has been working in the back yard! So far he's dug up the semi-buried paving stone path and excavated a square of patio bricks that runs the width of the yard and about a third of the length. We have decided to repurpose the bricks into raising the biggest bed and if there's enough left, border the bed against the wooden fence. I gave him permission to excavate the big bed, as long as he saved any bulbs he found for transplanting. Between the bags of potting soil and the compost we have, there should be enough fill dirt to lift the bed about six inches. My only concern is the drain spout. We might just cut the bed off beside the spout and leave that section for grass. Or maybe a small bush.

In other Witchy news, I'm still reading "Natural Witchery". Her advice on color work in clothing was intriguing. Her shield spell is similar to mine in execution, but while she uses blue light or blue mist bubbling up from a cauldron, I use a silver mirror, like an un-faceted disco ball. I have also discovered Lord Dhanvantari, the Hindu Celestial Physician & god of healing. I found a stunning picture of him rising from the churned milk seas as the fourth incarnation of Vishnu. It is now my laptop wallpaper and I can feel the power behind it. Okay, I may be projecting, but I still want to get it printed and framed and hung somewhere in my bedroom. And I had a transcending bath tonight where I saw perfect balance in a drop of water on my right ring fingernail.

It's good to be a Witch.

only has Saturdays and Sundays now to work on said garden, so yesterday was busy. I weeded and removed hostas to the rose bush at the west end of the front bed. I planted all my bulbs, if the tall butterfly friendly flowers bloom I will be ecstatic because those were dry, dry, dry. The begonias were sprouting roots, of which I planted half of them roots facing up, so we'll see about those. It's been raining off and on and I dumped all the mulch I had over the planted areas. Bishop's weed is a beyatch.

I also planted my little clump of lavender and I really want more, but I have to see what sprouts first. This isn't an annual bed, my daffodils have spread beautifully and I have several lily of the valleys floating around, some of which I had to replant because they were so entwined with the hostas. I also removed all the moss and ferns.

SLB helped with moving large chunks of earth and dug a trench for me to plant the bottle border with. I have to go back and replant a few bottles, the line is creeping up vertically. He crushed some of my lily of the valleys, we'll see if they recover. He wants to mow today, I'm debating if I should go out now and get more done, or wait until he's done as I'm also in the middle of laundry.

Because I'm curious, what does it mean when I can wear jeans SLB can't because they're too small for him and they're almost too small for me?

In my quest for Flowers, I have done the following in my front bed:

Spread three buckets of mulch.

Dug up what feels like a gazillon (probably only about 20-30) plants with the ugly purple flowers that are as common as dirt and may be a form of hosta but I don't care, they're ugly and I refuse to have any more!! (I still have a gazillon to go, the tubers are EVERYWHERE)

Planted the bulbs SLB potted in the house in one of the cleared sections.

Removed a lot of moss, dead grass and other assorted litter.

Tied back the rose bush to the porch w/orange twine.

This has amounted to about two hours of work spread out since Friday. My work schedule this week is four days, I'm off Wednesday, which is good because my counseling appointment is that day and I won't miss work for it. I intend to go gadzooks in the bed Wednesday while the children entertain themselves inside. This will not be difficult. I'll need more mulch, so I'm keeping the car Wednesday too.

Zhade & Kenshardik came down this weekend and were very gracious about me popping outside while they watched something I wasn't interested in. We watched two stand up comedians, the Top Gear River Nile episode, and had a lot of good chats. I introduced Kenshardik to Don't Starve. We'll see if he picks it up for his PC. My quiches were a hit, but the tomato and spinach one didn't carry over well the next day. There are no leftovers. I'm going to be taking rice balls to work tomorrow.

I'm still sore, but not as bad as I was. I am proud of what I'm getting done, as is SLB, but he claimed he felt bad his challenge was what motivated me. I assured him sometimes that's exactly what I need.

Pending work schedules and possible freezes, I hope to have the begonia and pack of assorted butterfly friendly bulbs planted in the next two weeks. Woot!

...continues to bleed for her plants.

...has approximately a fuckton of potting soil.

...is getting IDEAS for container gardens for the front porch.

...will be buying primroses. Oh yes, there will be primroses.

...has accepted the fact that an herb garden is too much work, but succulents are doable.

...broke out her aloe so the baby aloe can have a pot for its very own.

...broke out the white lilac (possibly hyacinth) into three different pots.

My new apron SO WORKS for this! I expect it will also work well for baking, especially with my hand mixer of DOOOOOOOOMMMMMM.

It's snowing. It's been snowing off and on all afternoon, in between bouts of gorgeous cold sunshine. Nothing's sticking and I have seen clear blue skies. Spring is only 8 days away!