Wednesday, April 23, 2014

One Less Tree

One of the three maples in front of the house has been declining the past few years. We also had lots of damage from the ice storm in December. So I called up the arborist who came out to do some work for us about 9 years ago and they came and took down the maple yesterday. They will be back later this week to take care of trimming a few other trees. I think we will be getting a bit more sun in the front of the house this summer. I might have to plant more sun-loving flowers in the flower boxes this summer.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Oregano Wars

No it is not a new food competition. It is, however, a battle being waged in my garden. I am hoping that striking early will put me at an advantage. For the last couple of years the Italian Oregano I have had in this raised bed has done very well. So last year I tried to cut it back a bit and transplant my chives into the bed. Apparently loosening the soil triggered something in the oregano, cause it spread like a weed last year (it could also have been the rain, we got a lot last summer). As I have ordered some roses bushes and I have a slew of tomatoes I am starting from seed I really need to use all the raised bed space this year.
It was about 60 degrees out today and sunny so I went 3 rounds of ripping, yanking, and digging out all the roots I can find. As you can see I only got about half way so far. I did get one other bed weeded, that was a piece of cake compared to this one. A few more rounds and I should have it cleared (you can only lean over a raised bed for so long - getting up and stretching is needed every 30 minutes or so). Once I have it cleared I will likely still have to monitor it this summer to make sure any stray roots don't start up again.