"MLEBLANCA" wrote in message
...


In article
, "madgard"

writes

I am a woman possessed. I am curious as to wheather or not I can get the
spade into the soil near the fence by the dead mimosa where it's pristine
clean. The garden mind is an amazing thing. It's really quietly plotting and
planning when we least suspect it. In no time I was over by the fence,
admiring the clean, bare and raked area that is at least three foot wide
running along the fence, and I put the point of my spade against the red
soil, put my foot on the lip, and jump on it, expecting resistance.



There is something that just soothes my soul when I can dig.

I feel exactly the same way Emilie. This is why I posted this despite that
I'd already posted something earlier. Despite that my back was warning me
something is seriously wrong (I can only hope it's just sleeping horribly
wrong and the spine is shreiking) yesterday and I'm worse today I was
determined to try out the soil yesterday. Today it's much colder, it's still
gray, but I am smug that I moved the weigelia at a time when it was truely
dormant, and once true spring gets here, it will take off and settle itself
next to the dead mimosa just about 3 foot from the oak leaf hydrangea's. (I
planted two of them together to get a more fuller shrub effect, as they were
just $3.95 each for 3 gallon plants, I should have gotten all five they had.
The nursery closed shortly afterwards

That's why I love being in a place where the ground never freezes.

it seldom does around here anymore. But we need a little freeze to kill off
a few of the hateful bugs that make our lives so miserable. ticks, fleas,
mosquito's, they said the sub-zero temperatures didn't hold long enough to
make any difference with the pine borer beetles and their larval in the pine
trees around here, which means had we had this Canadian low front to hold
another week or two, it might have saved thousands of trees that are
infested with the beetles and their young. That's what the woodpeckers are
going after, by the way.

I can go out and play in the dirt when I feel the urge. When we moved to
Ohio, that was perhaps the worst thing: not being able to get my hands in
the dirt in winter. The sound of a shovel going 'clunk' on the frozen earth
just was not satisfying!! I couldn't dig; nor even SEE the dirt. And no,
shoveling snow was NOT the same thing.



that's true. But I have enough cacti, succulents and a few tropical plants
to satisfy my need to feel the soil in my fingers, and repot or bump up or
even top dress. I have probably three plants now that desperately need just
to have new soil in their pots. First I have to get the soil and lay out
the plastic coated table cloth on the floor before I do this, but when I am
done, the plants will be thrilled and start showing their appreciation by
more growth, and my fingers will be significantly dirtier~g

Yes, this is the perfect time for removing things, privet yearlings pull
right up, and perfect for moving plants around to new homes.

I agree with you there on those hateful little privet yearlings. I have
been pulling them and their older siblings up by their roots lately when I
come across them. I even managed to pull out three foot saplings of the
things. NOthing like grabbing hold of what you think is privet and giving a
good soul and back wrenching yank and finding out it's a hackberry tree
sapling and it ain't going nowhere! owie.......but in my carpenter's jeans
side pocket, are my bypass pruners and I just get even and cut the trunk to
the ground. The only tree sapling that doesn't mind being whacked in that
manner and comes back is the black walnut saplings. when I find those and I
can't pull them out, I go get the shovel and pry them up. I have enough of
those hateful things to start a grove and if I don't dig them now, they will
be virtually impossible to lift later. When I am done with cleaning out my
lower woods, there won't be black walnut,young pin oaks, cedar (I will keep
two large ones at the bottom of the lot)privet, blackberry, holly
trees,honeysuckle and poison ivy. There will be only jack pines,the
decently sized oak saplings, the tulip poplar's and those two cedars. I
haven't one decent dogwood, but once I clean and clear all that out which
will take me a couple of years constant attacking to accomplish this, I will
then be able to start buying redbuds, dogwoods, silver bells, and any
understory blooming tree my heart desires. (within a reasonable price of
course) Once I get my understory trees planted, (there will be a few jack
pines topped which grow way too close to the house for comfort) I will start
on the shrubs that will live under those understory trees. I already have
quite a collection, but not nearly enough to spread out down in the north
bottom woods.

These woods get good western exposure, and fair eastern exposure. The only
southern light they get is really filtered thru those jack pines and oaks
and the three decent tulip poplars. My gardening work is literally cut out
for me.

The main chore will be clearing out, cleaning up, pulling up, whacking back,
in some cases I might have to resort to putting something to kill some of
the things that won't go quietly into the night. (the honeysuckle in some
places is thuggish, and the privets will take a herbicide only because I
don't own a tractor that would pull the roots out of the soil which would be
the only way to completely remove them, we're talking privet that is 15 foot
high in some places. To cut the branches back only stimulates them to
produce more limbs. I'd be whacking until judgement day on the blasted
things. Of all the non natives, I despise the privet more than anything,
second is honeysuckle. I adore the scent, but when you're trying to claim
some land for other things, it's amazing in it's tenacity.





Emilie going to pack a lunch and go play in the snow instead of dirt, today

you could always slide over here and we can repot some plants, possibly
divide some of the mother in law's and I could share with you........g