Frustrations

The beautiful weekend should have brought joy in the garden. In some ways it did: my asparagus is growing shoots already and my saturated-green grass has required two mowings already. But all of a sudden a cloud of frustration has settled overhead as I realized how overwhelmingly parts of the garden have been neglected.

Last fall, I thinned out a group of iris. Iris are supposed to be split every 3 to 4 years. In the 3 years DH owned the home, it had never been done, and who's to say how long it had been before that when the house was a rental. Little did I think at the time that it was just the tip of the iceberg.

We've power washed our fence, and now that it's nice, we want to get it painted. I really wish we could just rip the thing out and put in a vinyl one. Every time I see the stupid paint chips laying in my garden, I have to stifle an anxiety attack, fearful that I will be poisoning whoever eats my home-grown goodness. Not to mention the mini freak-outs provoked by the thoughts of the new white paint chemicals we will be slathering all over the boards.

At the end of picket fence is a completely overgrown mess. It has Oregon grape, yellow forsythia, choked out roses and a couple trees of unknown species. Every plant is trying to take over the other and it's just completely tangled. I'd love to save what I can, especially the forsythia, but I don't even know how to go about thinning it out.

I ended up killing all my zinnia starts. The marigold and alyssum are doing great, but I drowned the zinnia. All 24 starts. Oops.

Note to self for next year: trim the myrtle periwinkle vines early in the spring to promote new growth that will flower.