Imperatives

While deep digging bind weed roots yesterday afternoon, in the gentle rain, I realized what my garden goals are for 2016:

Vegetables.

Invasive plant irradication.

Creating a NW hedgerow, between our property and our neighbor's, as we had to remove a 60 foot tall hemlock due to a 12' spiral crack halfway up its trunk. (The post mortem showed rot. While we are amazed with the afternoon light in our sitting room, we miss our tree.)

It feels good to have defined goals. Surely they will morph into side projects. Already a path boarder needs redefining, now that the Sweet Woodruff, an invasive, is ripped out of the adjoining bed. All the stones along the the path were lifted in order to get at the offending plant. Next up: compact the soil, then sand, and then reset the stones. Keeps me out of trouble!!  

A Return

The last couple of years have been intense. Family needs have taken me away from this blog, but not my gardening.

To ease back in, here's a lovely, and honest piece of garden writing from The Guardian, May 2015: What I'm really thinking: the gardener