... mulch. And you thought I was going to say something else, didn't you?This is what's left of the three cubic yards of fine-bark goodness we spread over our little garden plots two weeks ago. We're hoping it'll inhibit most of the weed growth we fought last summer. And protect the bulbs we planted last fall -- you know, the ones that thought it was spring three weeks ago. Silly bulbs! Here are our irises from way back when I first started blogging, now transplanted to the great outdoors. The stems on the lavender in the foreground never even died off over the winter:
And here are the lilies that came with the property. We've got others in the ground near them that seem to be a little wiser.
We've been getting frost at night, so growth has slowed down since I shot these pictures. D says everything's doing all right, though. And apparently, the trees in our neighborhood are BLOOMING. When I left, our lilac tree looked like this:
But maybe not anymore! Wait for me, lilacs; I'm coming back!
I'm asking D to take pictures so I don't miss them like I did last year, when I was away at Little U. on the Prairie (Land of the Deep Freeze). One of the profs on my thesis committee -- the one I mentioned in this post -- wrote as part of an excuse for his/her e-mail silence, "It's tirelessly cold here. If this were a logging (rather than a college) town we'd all be deep into booze."
And because I lived there for two years, I still sympathize. Just a little.
Said prof sent me feedback a few days ago. It was, shall we say, thin -- and so delayed that the suggestions were almost irrelevant (i.e., I've reworked the manuscript in an attempt to keep moving forward to the point that certain areas of concern the prof referenced have undergone significant changes). But s/he did send it, that feedback. And it at least reaffirms for me that my editing instincts were good ones, even if I have no clue whether the changes themselves improve the work. It's the small things we have to be grateful for, I guess. They add up in the end. Case in point: one cubic yard of mulch weighs 500 to 800 pounds, depending on its moisture content.
Which means, over the course of one afternoon, D and I moved about a ton of it. Likely a little more, since it was fairly wet.
That's more than I thought I was doing at the time. Perhaps this thesis too -- ? Oh, I hope.
5 comments:
The joy of seeing planted things (that you've done yourself) actually succeed and not just grow but thrive - well, I share your joy and love.
As for your prof - this long long delay and sketchy feedback is just not on. Are there other students on the same course who feel rightly neglected? I'd get together if I were you and go and visit the guilty person. Of course if you took it higher it could rebound in a negative way, but why not try and make the offender feel just a little bit bad about the treatment of their students
xx
I always have shoots coming up in the winter - even in the snow! I think they get confused when we have a couple of days in the 50's here and there!
My lilac looks like that too. It's grown up so high this year that it's over the second story deck rail. I can't wait for those delicious smelling blooms to come out!
I am ready for spring!
FF -- unfortunately, this isn't a course with multiple students enrolled, all getting neglected at the same time. Each student heading into thesis year assembles a committee by asking at least three professors with whom s/he has worked to advise him/her during the writing process. Toward the end of the first semester of thesis year, these professors review the work the student has completed and send feedback (so that there will be no surprises at the defense several months later). It would have been nice to be able to drop into this prof's office hours to gently remind him/her about my draft (more effective than e-mail, I imagine), but being a few time zones away makes that slightly more challenging. I resorted to calling, which helped nudge things along.
Sherlock -- the smell is what I really don't want to miss. It's fleeting since the tree only blooms for a short time. Hope spring comes your way soon!
I had a huge bed of lavender for years,and tried to transplant it in another area and the whole thing died. I was so disappointed. I've never had a green thumb. And lilacs...I also love, the scent is amazing, tkes me back to childhood. My iris'(purple) are alwys beautiful on their own. My flowers are all perrenials. I just hope each year that they've survived the winter. Do you see my purple attern here with my flowers. It sounds like you take much better care of your plants than I do...hope that are all pretty this year.
I've never had a green thumb either, SuziCate! Anything that makes it under my care tends to do it on its own inherent hardiness :). I go for the perennials myself (less need to replace them). There are chrysanthemums bordering the iris bed -- we'll see if they survived the bunnies that ate them to nubs last fall.
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