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Old 25-03-2004, 11:03 PM
madgardener
 
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Default Spring doings, major garden accomplishments and spring is bursting out up in Fairy holler

Last night as I drove home thru the back roads, after stopping at a local
Wally to get supper fixin's, I remembered there was one spot that, once I
crossed the 4 way stop sign, a house on the corner lot which is surrounded
by woods and has a hill that rises above it on the south side has a spring
boggy, marshy spot. The road curves deeply on the right of it and then
snakes back to the left in another deep curve, and rises above the property.
Down the drop from the road, the land holds water. Enough that a perennial
family of mallards and other ducks return every year to mate and raise a
brood. They are protected, have enough food, and feel safe enough to come
back every year.

I've noticed this every year since I discovered it 11 years ago when I tried
out a back road from my house.

Lately I've begun noticing something else too, and this was the reason as I
approached the stop sign, to get my cell phone and hope the signal was
strong enough to make one call. A week ago, when going TO Wally from the
back road, and drove the winding road to the spot, I was overwhelmed by the
sounds that rose to greet me in my vehicle thru the rolled up windows.

Last night, the sounds were even more raucous and loud. So loud it was
almost deafening. The waters lately have harbored hundreds perhaps almost a
thousand or so frogs and peepers. Their chorus of high pitched trills is so
loud and echoing in this little nook nestled against the bottom of a hill,
and surrounded by woods that I wonder how on earth the people who live in
the house stand it and also hope like hell that they never get disgusted
enough to do something about it to make it "less noisy".

The sound cut right thru the glass of the car, and thru the glass it was
loud. I pulled over to the narrow shoulder on the first deep curve that also
has woods and scrubby brush bordering it with a sharp ditch drop just inches
away from the old asphalt road and was seeking the phone number of my best
friend out in Oregon. I wanted Diane to hear the cacophony of sound from the
cell phone if she was home.

I pushed the number next to her name and connected it and hit the speaker
button on the side and then rolled down the glass. Instantly the sound
surrounded, over came, smothered and blasted me out. It was awesome!!!
They were all in full throat and singing to the heavens and every female
within a possible radius of a mile it seemed. I listened to the ringing of
the phone and when her husband's voice came on on the answering machine, I
waited for the beep and then gave this message, "I just called from East
Tennessee to share some true spring songs, I hope you can hear this and
enjoy it. It's really this loud" and immediately stuck my arm outside the
window to pick up the sound better.

I did this and slowly eased up the edge of the deep curve and it got even
louder. I then closed the phone and drove off to what I knew was waiting for
me at the house.

Earlier I had called oldest son at home on his day off to tell him there was
a package coming from Carroll Gardens up in Maryland. (YES, he has a job,
and it's at another Lowes in plumbing, woo hoo!!G) He informed me that a
package had already arrived. And it was large enough to hold a small child.
I told him it must be Diane, and he sounded shocked and amused when I told
him they had folded up a small person named Diane and sent it to
me....GBSEG

So when I got home, he comes downstairs to get the bags of supper making's,
a stuffed sauce cheesy pizza and extra stuff to pile up on top, and informed
me that "Diane" was waiting by the nook door against the chimney. In the
light next to the screen door that comes on when you drive up, I saw
immediately a four and a half foot tree gently tied to a five foot bamboo
pole painted green, in a large three gallon plastic bag and glowing. There
were magenta pink/red blossoms all along the stems that were tied against
the trunk. And the trunk........wow! It was almost three inches thick at
the base.

I was excited, so I called my friend, Diane out in Oregon and told her that
I had gotten a witch hazel named Diane that had red flowers. I also told
her to listen to her answering machine to see if there was an odd message
for her from me, and we parted since she was doing her earth mother things
with her four children and her hectic life out there in the land of growing
things. She gardens too, only on a scale that sometimes puts me to shame
since she also grows a veggie garden to supplement her produce as she's a
vegetarian and been one for as long as I've known her.

This morning as I woke early to the sounds of shouting birds in every song
imaginable that cut thru the closed window, I rolled off the warm waterbed
and opened up the window and the sounds came rushing into the room, along
with a fresh burst of cold, moist, smelling like damp earth and spring air.
I hunted around for the glasses case and my specs, and after putting them
on, looked out the window to the flower garden outside the window on the
south side of the house next to the shared driveway.

Despite my cutting of every narcissus that was blooming the other night to
save from the hard freeze we got, there were more arrivals outside my
window. The cold marble on my arms as I leaned up against the window, I am
amazed at the growth in just a few days of warm sunshine and cold nights.
More little shoots of Frakartii asters that I remind myself that I must lift
and transplant to other places......then I remember the red witch hazel,
Diane that must be planted.

The fairies whisperings are subtle but suggestive as I heard them
subconsciously and considered their mumblings as my own thoughts and I moved
towards the nook. Rose and Sugar were already reading my body language and
had almost knocked me over in the hallway as I remembered I needed shoes and
searched for the slip on's I have somewhere. Ahhhh, found them, my feet
sliding into comfortable shoes that I found at Wally for a couple of
dollars, I pop pop pop down the hallway again, this time the girlz are so
stirred up they almost knock me off my feet, and I reach the door and
unlatch the screen door to release them and Rose bursts thru the door all on
her own, Sugar hesitates, looking up at me with those eyes of hers that are
so wise and thoughtful like she's asking "can I go instead of staying by
your side? I'd rather hang with you but I'll behave, honest". I coaxed her
to go on, and she nosed her face past the closing screen door edge and
bounced outside into the early spring morning.

I sucked in my breath as the "nightsticks" (tails)passed by in a blur and
exhaled as they got past the little sapling bush just bursting with red
ribbons. "Yep, DEFINITELY time to plant her before the girls in their
rough-housing around break it like they did my Harry Lauder's Walking stick
" I mumbled to myself and the fairies who were listening as I picked the
bush up by the neck and went to get the new weapon against the soil and this
ridge.

I have a new spade. A Fiskars wide step, life-time guaranteed, sharpened
fiberglass and steel shovel. I find it under the eaves of the side porch
near the swing and pick it up by the neck as well and start the steep decent
to the first terrace. I have already decided where she'll go. There is an
overhang and mini cliff that I've planted beautyberry, Sand cherry, and
Scotch Broom along the tops of rocks where there used to be towering Jack
Pines. The pines are now not only cut, but one has crumbled and the branches
of Mary Emma's huge Black Knight buddleia she dug up for me three years ago
was broken in the older trunk twisting and falling. It needed pruning
anyway. Same with the lilac and orange throated thug I dug up on the same
day with roots the size of my wrist or larger.

Next to the tomato/perennial box is a small boulder jutting out of the soil,
and it's next to a semi exposed piece of corrugated drain pipe that has
worked its way up thru the soil it was covered by. I chunk into the soil
and the sharp blade cuts thru it like a hot knife thru butter. I get a
great sense of relief as I make a perfect hole next to a stump of a cut
cedar and start untying each restraining piece of twine that has so lovingly
been tied around the bamboo and bush to keep the arms from getting broken.
There are six. It's almost 5 foot tall already and according to the tag, it
will get six foot by six foot. Good. It will make a curtain at the end of
the box. I don't care. I plant insanely with no thought and as things grow
and mature and settle in, it somehow works. If it doesn't, I move it later.

Now that I've planted Diane, I start looking at all the signs of spring
around me. The fairies tell me to slow down and just SEE what they have
prepared and waken for me. That makes me decide to run inside and grab the
camera. All stoned on spring, I am once again almost knocked over by the
marauding, blustery dawgs. Snatch the camera off the support hook under the
shelf, I turn and book back out the screen door, startling the dawgs and
making them crazzzie and start playing and growling and gargling marbles as
they rough each other up across the boardwalk that leads out my nook and the
den door.

Boogie back down the dog run that cuts thru the back of the raised beds and
in front of the house, hook right and skid to a stop as I see BLUE. Wait,
wait, back to the nook entrance and decide to capture the Black cherry shade
garden. Oh joy!! The little micro-climate has encouraged the Virginia
bluebells to bud and start to open. And the primroses I planted two weeks
ago are blooming strongly. There was three colors in one pot, I grabbed it.
Now if only it would return for me next year.........

I start taking early morning pictures. Awesome ones. I hunker down (no easy
task for a fat little hippie) and take fairy view pictures of the
Hellebores. And move westward, stopping at showings of flowers seemingly
everywhere. and they are everywhere. Peeping outa every pot almost of
perennials I have in open spots in front of the long raised bed.

I grab the trowel and the two pots of Arabis and dig up a clump of Frakartii
aster and when I tip out the rock cress, I replace the aster in the pot to
hold until I plug it somewhere else to spread. Take a picture of some
snowdrop galanthus that are awesome, each little dot of green like
perfection on every tip of every little lampshade like blossom. One can
almost hear the titters of laughter of the fairies as I squat down and
balance against the landscape timbers that need replacement soon.

That close to where the hole is that Sugar left behind when she dug up next
to the kniphofia I see there is just enough hollow left to sit a peony that
Mary Emma had me dig up when I dug up 9 tree peonies. The distraction of
the fairies insistence is strong. I rise and turn off the camera and go find
the peony. It has pointy little red sprouts poking up from the clod of earth
and thick roots. It fits perfectly. Like it was made for that particular
spot.

Back to where I was, I look at the massive 15 gallon broken black nursery
pot that houses the straggly Iberis and three different lilac's I'd heeled
in last year. Hmmmmm, with the dolly my dad left me, I could wheel it over
to the side yard and plug them in next to the other lilac. Noooo, wait,
maybe if I use the new shovel to try and dig up some more of that ancient
forsythia..........YEAH! "

I sit the camera between the two window boxes that is quickly filling up
with bulb shoots, and go down the driveway to retrieve the dolly. It's an
old one. Weighs about 20 pounds and made of solid metal and heavy thick
rubber tires. It'll move a double door fridge or a boulder if given the
chance. It's a real hand truck that is older than me that my dad had.

I tried to shove the edge of the steel plate up under the massive broken
pot, and finally managed to lift the edge enough to dislodge it from the
suction of the soil and plastic pot. Trying to load it onto the dolly's
edge by myself was too much the first time. I lost my hold, flew over the
dolly and landed on my right wrist and butt in the driveway. I was lucky.
The wrist wasn't broken. So I caught my breath and let Sugar give me a
patronizing kiss as she rushed over to me from her spot in the shade on the
opposite side of the driveway where Jerry's Firethorn grows along a dogwire
fence.

Ok, one more time with feeeeling..........I grunt and shove and manage to
get the heavy pot onto the wide lip and then slowly lift and push the dolly
down until it's lying flat, the pot and bushes balanced. Grab the handle
and start to roll it towards the side yard. And get a brilliant idea. Or
not. The Fiskar spade comes out and I start jumping on the edge and prying
the stump of the 30+ year old Forsythia I've been trying for 10 months to
dig up. I've been using the heavy mattock but was wearing out but I knew if
I was going to get it out of the soil, now was the time while the ground was
tender from the freeze and winter. As I carefully shoved and maneuvered the
blade under the root, I thought to myself that if I broke it, Fiskar would
be freaked out that I'd only had it two weeks and already killed it before
they replaced it. But I carefully levered it and suddenly I heard the most
satisfying thunk deep in the soil you've ever heard. I actually whooped!.

Working around the stump, I managed to sever everything and finally lifted
the whole thing out of the grasp of the red clay and turned it over.
Delirious, I ran to get the camera and take a picture of my accomplishment.
Rose rushed over to snatch up any fat grubs that I'd uncovered. And some
larval thing that was as large as my thumb with scratchy feet and tan
looking that she chomps and smacks like peanut butter when she comes across
them. Sugar was fascinated. But unsure if she wanted it and Rose had her
treat. Three of them to be exact.

Now I had a hole to put the lilac's into and they'd get full benefit of
southern and western exposure. If I don't like them there, I'll plant them
next to the older lilac and I'll have a lilac bush that has four different
kinds of blossoms. I may still do it. But for now the hole is filled back up
and it works.

Once I realized it was later than I realized, I went in to get my first
glass of sweet tea and eat a Navel orange and banana. Refreshed and
energized, I decided to finish taking the pictures of everything and
download the pictures and label and clean them all up. That took an hour,
and when I was finished, I started writing my update to ya'll when I decided
I wasn't quite through.

Back outside I went straight to the two piles of dry brush that I'd raked
out of the beds a few weeks back. Then I gathered the dry and brittle stalks
of the Lemon Queen Heliopsis and piled them in the driveway. This reminded
me that I needed to cut the Zebra grass and burn it. I'd burn it where it
grows but I have crape myrtles and a Sherbet colored trumpet vine growing
close to it. I'll have to cut the grasses and burn the debris in the
driveway later.

Spring is bursting out all over Fairy Holler. Every variety of spirea is
leafing out, some more than others. Looking like flaming yellow orange
leaves, others dotted with fresh green all along the stems of the older
ones. The Oakleaf hydrangea has leaf shoots poking out just under spent
blossoms that I quickly broke off and tossed into the neighboring compost
pile that needs a few buckets of fresh cow pies....that'll be tomorrow, rain
or shine.g

The variegated blue lacecap hydrangea has white edged leaves all along it's
branches and I've set a rock on the branch that started roots to make a
daughter bush to plant somewhere else later when it grabs the soil.

My 16 foot YOSHINO CHERRY tree I got last year and drove home sticking outa
my car window doing 10 MPH on old highway 66 is blooming!!!!!! Where's the
camera??? Awesome!! But sad to say the twisted filbert has been destroyed
and the evidence is the seven straight shoots coming from the roots. I'll
have to clip them and hope what comes up later is twisted.

There is enough wood debris to have a bonfire for days. Massive logs of
fallen Jack pines litter the floor below the last woods room. Striped shoots
of Bengal Tiger cannas are poking out of the mucky, gray water fed area, and
I need to find the rose gloves to remove the ripped out canes of blackberry
when I cleaned it a few weeks ago.

The Chinese almond bush I thought I'd lost is fine and bud tight. Little
pink balls with just two or three blossoms that look like miniature roses
are starting to pop out where I planted it in front of the western end of
the front beds. Everywhere I see the soil filling up with shoots. Daylilies
are already six inches tall. And the damage where Sugar did some of her
worst in the tomato/perennial boxes is showing me emerging's of shy remnants
of roots of the many plants I plugged in the box last spring and summer.

Varigated Wiegelia has leaflets on it, the Loripedilum has survived and
looks like it's making buds, Diablo ninebark is budding, Wine and Roses
wiegelia has teeny little leaf buds on it as well.

I look at the dawgs lying under the shade of the bushes that line the drive
on my neighbor's side and go get the rake and pile up the dry debris in the
center of the driveway and go hunt for a match. After the stuff burns, I
tell the girls lets go in the house, and find the camera, put away the
shovel, rakes and claw weeder. Take pictures of the fattening up
sempervivums that Micki sent me babies of 29 different varieties last year
that have wintered in little pots on my deck. I only lost one pot this
winter.

The twice blooming irises are ready to be plugged into a spot to mature and
bloom for me, sitting patiently on the deck under the pots of semps. And
those irises in the windowbox I nailed to the railing next to the kitchen
door need lifting out of the box and placed somewhere they will bloom. they
refuse to ever since I planted them there but are healthy other than that.

So now I can go inside and get another glass of tea and fix myself a sammich
and tell ya'll all about my first spring day in the fairy gardens. And I
think I got my first sunburn. I wore a halter today it was so glorious.
Life is good! Now all I hafta do is drive into the city and get a
replacement handle for my watering wand, plant those irises, pick up all the
limbs and twigs and wood in the various places and pile it in the burn pile,
collect cow pies and put them on top of the rotting bags of leaves I
salvaged under the deck from a haul I'd done a couple years ago and they'd
sat quietly in their plastic bags decomposing. Plug in the weedeater and
whack some edges, transplant a few plants that have jumped outa boxes into
the narrow pathways, and replace the landscape timbers with those composite
landscape timbers we have one at a time. Maybe by the time I have replaced
them all, I will have the bracket kit that you can attach to these timbers
and turn those 18 inch stepping stones into sides and raise up the backs of
the front beds....I'll let you know if I do this. Just the timbers alone
will take me a month or so to replace along the edges of these front beds.

I hope Spring's soft breath is blowing gently on every bulb and plant where
you are and are wakening up to thrill you as much as it does me. Until
later, my friends,
madgardener, up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking a greening
up English Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36 where it
got up to 77o today!







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