Goals? or Projects?

When I was working in a normal office and had a staff, I hated goal setting.  My goal was always to get thru the week without making some terrible mistake that cost someone pay or PTO, or lost the company $10,000.  For most of my staff, setting goals was a total waste of time.  They did their jobs well, showed up every day with enthusiasm and were the hardest working group I have ever known.  Goals seemed superfluous at best. 

But in the garden?  It's a totally different thing.  All winter i think about things i want to change or improve.  Some years there are lots of things, or big things, and some years they are not so hard... but each will make my garden better.  I see them as projects, but they really are goals, too. 

So the top three four for this year:

1) Convert the xeri-garden into a veggie garden.  I really loved the idea when I first started the xeri-garden, but it just hasn't worked out the way I hoped.  It appears to be too wet for most of the xeri-plants and, tho I have replaced them annually and tried new things, i still have way more weeds than plants.  And, to make things worse, the soil has packed down and i need to put 4-6 additional inches on top.  Was going to wait until retirement for a bigger veggie garden, but this will definitely be the big project for the spring.

2) Divide the iris in the fish pond and clean up the lily pond.  I love the iris, but they are way overgrown.  Will have to hack the whole bunch apart and destroy the container and then move about half of it into a new container and move the rest to the lily pond. 

 

 The lily pond has not even been cleaned for two years, so that's where I will need to start.  Then add more iris and clean up the pot of water lilies.  This should be an easy, if wet, project. 

 

3)  Put in a step in front of the shed.  This area becomes a swamp when it rains.  Since i am constantly in and out of the shed, the grass doesn't grow well and what does grow seems to interfere with the door opening smoothly.  A simple fix, but definitely needs to be done. 

4)  Turn over the compost pile.  A big job this year.  It's been at least two years since it was done and I have days' worth of small branches and woody stuff to shred before I can tackle the soft stuff.  Probably will take several months to get it done, but worth the work.

Everything on the left needs to be chopped up, then everything on the right flipped over to the left until I get down to "good dirt".

 

 

 

 

So goals for summer 2013 are all set.  Let's see how it goes.

Wednesday Workday

It's here.  I can smell it; feel it; see it; even hear it.  Yes, it's definitely spring.

Two-thirds of the main bed is cleaned out, weeded and ready for mulch.

Poured rain last night.  Left the ground so wet I had to look hard for a place to work today.  No way to set a single foot in the actual beds, so just worked around the outside.

Anemones to go into this bed as soon as it's dry enough.

Three more days and I should be done with the fall clean-up and hopefully the weeding of winter weeds, too.

Candy tuft is starting to bloom.

But, one had only to look around a bit to see that the sap is rising in more than the trees.  Yes, indeed, spring is definitely creeping into Virginia.  

Forsythia is starting to open, and the flowering almond and plum tree will not be far behind.

Hundreds, maybe thousands of mini-daffs have popped up.

Won't be long til we can sit on the deck and drink a bit of wine!