The reluctant gardener

When spring comes it comes in full bloom.  I had been meaning to add another wire trellis panel on the kitchen wall to contain the climbing rose bush but it was already full of new shoots.  I did it anyway, pulling out a step ladder and battling through the vines to mark the holes for the panel.  The only problem is that my son had borrowed the electric drill and the masonry bits were worn to a nub.  Cursing, I went to the hardware store to buy more masonry bits.  After a short struggle with the vines, I finally got the panel in place, pinning the main stalk to the wall.  My hands and wrists with filled with pricks and scratches but no matter, mission accomplished.  Although I probably need to add one more panel.  That rose bush has gone crazy.

At best I'm a reluctant gardener.  I get a little annoyed when Daina ropes me into these activities, but when I start working I get into the horticultural spirit.  We cleaned the yard and flower beds last weekend and I mowed the lawn after changing out the dark oil.  We still have a gas mower.  Probably should go electric like everyone else.

The tulips Daina had planted late last Spring and didn't come up are all coming up now.  It feels a little like Holland with all the varieties.  There was a time when tulips with fringed edges were worth their weight in gold.  For Daina they bring back memories of her mother.  She loved tulips and was planting them in odd little places around the yard.  Her tulips still come up after so many years.

Great to have these warm days again.  Relatively warm anyway.  Temp still not getting above 15 C but with the sun it feels fine.  Nights are still cold.  Daina said she saw frost on the lawn last morning.  I want to do summer movies again.  Even bought a new 360 degree speaker as the projector doesn't have very good sound.  Our daughters are coming this month so will try it out then.  Have to think of a fun summertime movie.  

We've tried our best to continue the legacy of her parents.  The grass is not holding up very well.  Completely overridden with weeds and we can't figure out what all the little holes are.  Hedgehogs or birds burrowing for worms or those nasty little grubs digging their way out of the ground and flying away as chafers.  Although we haven't seen any chafers, so hoping it is the former.  

Hedgehogs have been running around all over the place.  They come out at twilight, when the Japanese lanterns hanging from the rowan tree turn on.  Loki was barking at one curled up in the middle of the lawn.  I was finally able to tempt him away from the frightened little animal with food.  The cat keeps her distance.  I think she took a swat at one of these hedgehogs and realized they weren't to be messed with. 

Daina bemoans the lack of birds with the cat patrolling the yard.  Ash occasionally nabs a chirping sparrow, or žvirblis as they call them here.  I was able to save one from her clutches but I find the feathers of others scattered among the flower beds.  I can always tell when she caught one because of the low moan she makes.  The starlings aren't too afraid of the cat though so they come around pecking in the grass for worms and bugs.

The gray tabby had been hanging out in our yard for years.  Our previous Corgi would chase her out each morning, but she would always come back.  She seemed pretty healthy and I assumed someone looked after her but then one cold November night she came meowing out our window and I let her in.  Daina wasn't too happy about at first, but she is a very well mannered cat and soon became part of the family in the wake of the death of Choo Choo.  

The little Cardigan barged through the flower beds like a freight train, which is how she got her name.  We had to put up protective guards, which also gave the cat a safe place.  Chuey started developing a limp.  We weren't sure what it was and found out too late it was cancer.  It had started in her leg and spread through her whole body.  That was a real hard experience for all of us, especially our youngest daughter, as it came during the pandemic.  The little dog finally gave out her last breath late one night.  We buried her in the flower bed with a big stone marking her spot.  Baby purple Iris grow over her grave early each Spring.

We weren't going to get another dog but here again we were smitten by a tiny Pembroke in a litter and welcomed Loki into our house.  Like Chuey, a bit of a troublemaker but after two years we seem to have reached some sort of mutual accord and now he follows me everywhere.  Not much of a digger, which is good for the flowers.

We're not so sure we want to resod the lawn after watching our neighbors spend the better part of a summer digging up and sifting all the earth for weeds and packing it back down again to replant it.  That was a lot of work!  So, I content myself by digging out the dandelions and a few other weeds.  I leave the clover for the bees.

The new rhododendrons we planted seem a little sad.  Our neighbor Klavs is constantly teasing me about them, as his look more healthy.  Daina bought some special fertilizer and I've been watering them each evening.  Maybe they take longer to adjust to the new soil.  The older rhododendrons we have are doing just fine.  First blossoms this morning.  

The star of the yard is the magnolia.  It gets fuller each year and is in full bloom right now.  Daina wanted one that had more a tree form.  The other ones in the neighborhood are bushes.  It now towers over 3 meters.  We are no longer able to wrap it in winter, as we did the first four years, but mounding peat around the trunk seems to do the trick.  It's become so popular that are friends come to see it each Spring.  Klavs seems a little bit jealous.

Daina loves the lilac we planted two summers ago.  It's still quite small but looking healthy.  Still waiting for its first bloom.  Hoping it will take over that corner of the yard and give us a little privacy from our neighbors.  Added a couple other flowering bushes but not sure what they are.

We don't quite know what to do with the apple tree.  It starts out bright and cheerful and full of promise each year.  The apples come out but never grow beyond the size of tiny ping pong balls before falling off and becoming food for the birds and snails.  Loki loves them too, but I imagine they are very sour.  A few hang on until the end but it seems that something is eating away at the tree inside.  Daina thinks it isn't getting enough water, but it is at least 15 years old now and should be tapping into the underground stream below.  Water level is pretty high here.  A little stream used to run along what is now Beaver street from a pond to the Neris river.  It was covered over many years ago but you can still see it in historic photos.

I kind of wish we planted more fruits and vegetables.  We used to have little wild strawberry bushes.  Would feed the tiny strawberries to the two chipmunks our youngest daughter had when she was a eight or nine.  Daina wasn't really keen on pets but the chipmunks looked so cute.  They also loved rose hips, holding them in their tiny little paws and nibbling on them.  When the chipmunks passed on we buried them in the flower bed with little stones marking their spots, Ziggy and Gilly.  Usually plant cherry tomato plants in the big clay pot each summer.  We tried squash one year, but the vines completely took over the flower bed and we only got three or four squash out of it.  Wasn't worth it. 

As reluctant as I am to get out at the start of each growing season I can't help but get a certain measure of satisfaction from it.  I learn a lot from these efforts.  Mostly how not to do it that way again.  Vasily keeps telling me I should install a sprinkler system like he did but there is kind of a meditative quality about going around the yard with a hose and watering the plants in need.  It's almost like they say thank you.