Progress - Mostly in the Yard!

It was a fun and busy week, but I would have had to take before and after pictures of my rose bushes (all pruned!) and flower beds (good progress on weeding and dead growth cleanup) for you to really see anything. Bruce and I did make a run to our favorite nursery (not a chain garden center) to pick up our seed potatoes, garlic bulbs and onion starts. They go so quickly that we weren’t taking any chances this year! I bought a tea rose bush while we were there because I can’t help myself. It’s way too early to plant anything, but better to have what we need on hand.

I’ll revisit more of the garden news later in the post, but first I’ll show you the blocks I sewed up for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge’s April color of purple.

First up, five Chaser blocks. I may come back to these and make more blocks with purples, but for now here are the finished ones.

I also completed 8 Split Nine-Patch blocks to add to the pile.

The remainder of my studio time (two afternoons) was spent on some secret sewing that I can’t share just yet. But stay tuned for that in the next week or two!

On Tuesday evening, I went to my friend Ruby’s house for our monthly “card night”. Six of us from our Weight Watchers group have become fast friends and gather at one member’s home (we rotate) to play Hand and Foot. We were having so much fun that we kept going until just past 10:30. I didn’t get home until past 11, had to unwind before getting to bed (gulp - after 1 a.m.). I was wiped out the next day! Haha - no one will ever accuse me of being a party girl!  But we did have a small party / family gathering here for Easter with DS Shane and DGD London. 

Bruce was gone on Wednesday and Friday, attending “Myo U”, as they affectionately call the training sessions (usually held 2-3 times per year in Salt Lake) for prosthetists. Bruce is a “model”, since he’s an amputee. He has a blast because he used to work with guys in this company (Motion Control) when he (Bruce) worked back in the day with Robert Jarvik on the (artificial heart and) the Utah Arm projects. Anyway, the participating prosthetists this time came from Norway, Sweden, Ireland, India, Guatemala and the US. 

So let me show you - now that the snow has finally melted - what’s happening in the front and east side yards.

This first picture shows the new gravel that replaces the old grass along the driveway. That grass strip was just narrow enough to always look raggedy from lying between the house and driveway. And the rock matches what we already have in the front parking strip (the area between the front sidewalk and the street). Come to think of it, it also matches the cement border edging (mow strip) and the faux-flagstone front path from the driveway to the front door. Cool beans. 

Much tidier. The sprinklers were capped and drip irrigation lines were installed. Please forgive the rough nature of all the beds I’m showing today. We lost some plants to winter kill and others were likely destroyed with the digging for the drip lines lines. The beds are being cleaned up - slowly and methodically - by me. We have soil to spread (see the next picture), but that can’t begin to happen until after Monday. That’s when the contracted clean-up team will be here to remove all the styrofoam pellets that contaminated our yard from the demolition doc an old furniture store on the lot behind us. That story is here if you need a refresher on that fiasco (last part of the post). 

Obviously, nothing is blooming yet and the grass is only half awakened from winter. The wonky solar lights are now gone and will be replaced when the landscaping basics are done. Consider these to be “before” shots of this year’s beds!

I haven’t seen a trace yet of my bleeding heart bush in the planting area below, so if it didn’t survive all the digging, that’s one I’ll definitely want to replace. And note to self: the snow shovel and bucket of ice melt on the porch need to be put away!!

Much of the new soil will go in the bed below to fill in the area under the overhang and contour the bed to slope slightly away from the house - and fix the grade overall from years of digging and transplanting. A fresh start! 

I’m so excited to do some planning and plant shopping and digging and planting. Mother Nature, are you listening???

Have a great week!