Puttering...

Today, I wanted to tackle one of the tasks for my yard:  the sedum in the front bed.

You see, Firewood Man is promising to get my beds mulched soon.  Last year, he mulched, but did not bring enough and we never got around to finishing it.  I had not mulched the year before, because dealing with bags of mulch is no longer something I can really do.  So, for the Mulching Queen, my beds are somewhat lacking in mulch, which means keeping up with weeds is quite difficult.  Given I have been ill and it has been STINKING HOT for months, keeping up with the weeds means noting them in passing but not actually plucking them from the ground.

A couple of years ago, I put in sedum plants in the front bed.  Because my rather beleaguered variegated boxwoods are so small, I have wanted to have a lower decorative planting in front of them.  However, the sedum was taking over the bed and it looked just so off and there was quite a few weeds making the whole bed just tacky.  But it has been STINKING HOT so I haven't dealt with it.

I wanted to remove the sedum before Tim mulches, which means I needed to do that this week.  But I didn't want to just dig it out and toss it.  After all, I paid for that sedum.  I had plans for it.  Plans mean work, though, and work doesn't go well with my weakened body.  Still, I persevered.

My main plan was to try and use the established sedum in the hummingbird planters on the front porch and in some of those pots.  I just love having growing things on the porch, but it is draining to plant annuals.  This year, I filled the six GREEN pots on the front ledge of the front porch with succulents.  Since succulents thrive in the solarium over the winter, I planned to winter them and, thus, eliminate the need for annuals in those pots.  But I didn't want to be ferrying a million pots up to the solarium each winter and back down each spring.  Hence, the plan for the sedum.

Eons ago, I had sedum on my balcony in my apartment in Alexandria.  I had it for several years there and for several years on the deck of my house.  I just somehow managed to kill them all after moving here.  Hopefully, I shall be better at remembering to water them this time.

[Feel free to laugh at the remembering part.]

I have these two matching pots on the ledge by the fern bed.  One is rather large, so I filled that one because I am hoping, like the planters, its size will help the sedum.  Upon reflection, though, I might should have not filled the pots so full.  I suppose time will tell.  I also filled four smaller pots just to see how they will do.

But I had way, way, way more sedum to go.

My next location was on the other side of the porch, opposite the fern bed.  There is little sun on that side of the house.  In fact, the bed alongside the house itself is almost all shade.  That is where the hostas are.  Firewood Man has done a phenomenal job of getting the grass to grow around the corner there, but right up against the porch is still bare.  I filled a 12-inch strip of sedum from one end of the porch wall to the other.  A lovely patch of GREEN now.

But, alas, more sedum awaited relocation.

My last location of choice was beneath the forsythia.  Sadly, it was completely bare, having been not mulched in several years.  It needed more soil, so I relocated some of that, too.  I need to actually buy soil, but I was able to move enough so that there is hope the sedum I relocated will live.

I watered everything, but it also rained tonight.  I think that will greatly help the sedum I put into the ground.  We are to have a cold overnight low on the morrow, which makes my mucking about with the plant segments not exactly timely.  However, I am a great believer in whispering sweet nothings to plants (and bushes and trees and bulbs), so I did that, too.

The work was quite difficult for me.  The researcher part of my brain was observing just how much harder it is for me to use a shovel.  I think that observers might have snickered at the sight of me rather feebly digging into the front bed.  I mostly laughed at myself.  But I also wept a bit.

In addition to dealing with the sedum, I cut clippings from the scraggly Wandering Jew baskets on the front porch. I made them three years ago and probably should have refreshed them this year.  I will root the cuttings over the winter and recreate the baskets next spring.  For now, they are serving as a centerpiece for my table.

Needless to say, I am bloody exhausted.
Still.
Hours later.

I have two other yard tasks I wish to accomplish.  One is time sensitive, because of Firewood Man's help.  You see, the thyme growing in the Rose of Sharons bed is full of weeds.  I weed and weed and weed and these tiny plants keep growing back.  I love the beds full of thyme, but not weeds.  So, Firewood Man is going to use his super strong solution to kill off all the ground cover in that bed.  It will just be mulched.  However, before he does, I want to relocate some of the weed-free thyme that is growing at the end of that bed.  There are a few bare spots in the bulb bed that I could fill in.

This teeny, tiny part of me thought to try that today, but I knew I had already blown past what little energy I had, so I put away my tools.  That task, though, will not be too hard.

The other task I wish to do will.
Hard.
Really hard.

You see, I wish to dig up the fern bed and re-plant the ferns.  It is really, really, really over-mulched.  A bit of a hill, really.  I wish to clear out all the mulch and plant the ferns into actual soil.  Then, when Firewood Man mulches, it can be properly mulched.  Since some of the ferns are growing right up against the sidewalk, relocating them would be good.  And I hope to move two of the largest to mix them into the hosta bed.  I am just not sure I will be able to empty out the bed ... all that shovel work.

Mostly, I am trying to clean up yard, with the aim of minimizing the work they need.  More perennials and succulents that can winter in the solarium.  Elimination of thyme so I can simply kill off the weeds when they appear.  Beds that are ready for mulching by someone other than me.

If I don't move the thyme, I'll lose the opportunity to fill in bare spots, so I hope to get that done.  If I cannot get to the fern bed, that will surely wait, given its glorious growth.  At the least, I am really, really happy that the front bed no longer looks a mess and is ready for mulch.

I miss, deeply, the ability to putter in the yard for hours on end.  Puttering in the soil is so very soothing.  Relaxing.  Peaceful.  And, of course, puttering in the soil results in copious satisfaction because you are rewarded instantly with the fruits of your labor.  You are DOING SOMETHING and then can look about you to see that you have DONE SOMETHING.

My ability to putter is greatly diminished.  That grieves me.  But it also has spurred me to create a yard that is minimal in maintenance and yet still is beautiful.  I am getting there, I think.  A silver lining....