Garden update

[helwen]

Planted second gooseberry yesterday and pulled up some of the garlic mustard. I know I'm not getting all the roots, but I'll settle for minimizing their seed-making capability for this year. L mowed a lot -- grass is pretty tall so this first time through's going to take a bit, since he's fitting it in the spaces between all the other stuff.

He did get the hole dug by end of day yesterday, so this morning I planted the second elderberry. I'd like to do more planting but first have to clear more ground. Meantime, several of the trees are getting ready to bloom and they're all overgrown, so...this morning I mostly working on pruning so as to minimize having to deal with all the bees, hornets, etc. who'll be interested in those flowers...

Plants I've more or less identified so far: dandelion, stinging nettles, yellow dock, maybe some curly dock, garlic mustard, primroses, strawberries, phlox, poppies, iris (more than one type), daffodils (more than one type), hyacinth, croci, peonies, greater Celandine, blueberries, magnolia (daisy type), sumac, creeping Charlie, pink Lily of the Valley, white Bleeding Heart, a few big yellow tulips, lilacs, thistle, 2 kinds of hosta, a dogwood.

Another plant ID I'm working on, I think is Comfrey. I don't mind it, it's useful and pretty, but there's too much of it. Too much of some of the other stuff too. And the dogwood may have to be cut down because it's too close to the barn, but for now I've just trimmed back the branches that were touching the building.

Lots of work to be done! One of my goals is to spend at least 1/2 an hour per day working with the plants outside, barring inclement weather. Generally when I'm out there I spend 1-2 hours at a time, but sometimes all I have time for is one short job, so at least something gets done. Spent 2 hours outside this morning, and will be going back to work on at least one more thing this afternoon. There's a tree on the border between us and our uphill neighbor that's seriously overgrown, plus the ground under it is covered with garlic mustard. I'll be taking a saw out to take out one of the larger branches that's growing laterally over her property, and then see what needs to be done next.

Plant identification efforts will continue. Some things are native, and some I can tell were brought here but I don't know what they are yet.

Comments

[gardengirl6.livejournal.com]

Goats and rabbits both love comfrey. If you're sharing, I'll be glad to make use of it! You're quite right, though, that it can very easily be "too much."

[helwen.livejournal.com]

You're welcome to come and harvest a bunch! Or dig some up to bring home, if you like. I'd like to do that and bring it down but I'm finding my energy/brain power levels are such that just digging/pulling things up and toss them in the compost is what I can manage. If you do want some for your yard, I'll try to pot some, but no promises I'm afraid.

[oakmouse]

If you can afford to let the maybe-comfrey bloom, which it ought to do soonish (ours is just opening its first flower stalks of the spring), that should remove all doubt. Although several things (notably foxglove) can "pass" for comfrey when not in bloom, none of them have flowers or flower stalks that look like comfrey's scorpoid cyme.

We're still trying to identify some of the things in our yard, especially some of the garden cultivars left behind by the previous owners.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

If they're comfrey I'll definitely know it from the flowers. There are an awful lot of them, but I may let most of them grow for now, seeing as I have plenty of other plants to deal with as well. Still have a _lot_ of garlic mustard, although a friend came by this morning and took some for dinner :)