lisa April 29th, 2003
You know my huge, giant hydrangea that I had to move last November because it was in the path of the new gas line? The one that I really hacked the hell out of? It’s alive! It’s totally busting out all along the trunk and branches with buds! I’m so stoked.
And you know my trilliums? The rare, protected wildflowers that I was so excited to find in my back yard last year? The ones I was sure had been covered by a pile of dirt and rocks from the basement that one of the workers made last fall? They live!!! White and red ones! A big ol’ clump of healthy, happy trilliums.
And my daffodils that I planted? They are gorgeous and have multiplied exactly the way they were meant to. And the tulips I planted? Are about to bloom! And all the other perennials I put in last year appear to be coming back from the dead exactly the way they are supposed to and I LOVE SPRING!
I just spent three hours out in my yard and I’m so damn proud of my garden I could burst. The best thing about gardening is this sense of accomplishment. Triumph! Success! I can’t wait til later this year when I pick my first carrots and cucumbers.
lisa April 29th, 2003
We have walls! The plasterers showed up yesterday and put up all the blueboard. Today and tomorrow they will be doing the skimcoating and then they’re done. It’s a big milestone.
We’re still waiting on the electrician to finish his work, and waiting on the electric company to come and hook us up so we can go live with the new panel. Next project is the kitchen cabinets, but Sunday night at dinner Mark told me that he doesn’t think we’re going to have enough money to buy the lumber. We really need to refinance, but I don’t know if we can get an appraiser to give the house a high enough value without finishing the kitchen, rebuilding the porch, and finishing the bathrooms. I guess we don’t have much choice - we’ll only lose $100 if we get another appraisal and it’s not a high enough figure to do what we need to do.
lisa April 21st, 2003
We did a ton of work in the yard this weekend. I finished preparing the new bed in the front, and we rented a stump grinder and got rid of the stumps in the side yard, so now the property is cleared out from the house to the property line - an area about 80′ x 40′, I think. When we bought the house there were probably 25 trees there - weedy maples. Now there is just a lilac, a honeysuckle, and the big evergreens (arbor vitae and two pines). I am thrilled because it’s nice and sunny there and perfect for my veggie patch.
The whole backyard is covered in crocuses (almost done blooming) and scilla and glory-of-the-snow. I couldn’t figure out which type I had for the longest time, but now I understand - the glory-of-the-snow is lighter blue and opens upwards, while the scilla is a darker blue and cupped downwards. They’re both really cute.
My daffodils are looking pretty good, though I don’t know what happened to the paperwhites I planted the first fall - they bloomed last spring but I haven’t seen them yet this year. I bought three blue hyacinths at Home Depot on Saturday and now I want a dozen more because they are gorgeous!
lisa April 21st, 2003
We worked on the house all weekend, getting ready for the plasterers, who are coming Friday. I will be away all weekend, and when I get back on Sunday there will be walls and ceilings on the first floor! What a milestone. Paying the plasterers and the sprinkler guy (who will finish installing the fire sprinkler system on Monday) will take up the last of our money. From now until we refinance, we will be paying for everything out of pocket. I’m a little nervous - buying the wood for the cabinets is going to be awfully expensive, even if we buy rough-hewn and plane the boards ourselves. But I expect that we’ll muddle through. As long as neither of us gets laid off again.
lisa April 16th, 2003
I got 7 cubic yards of topsoil delivered this weekend, and I plan making a new bed in the front where the backhoe tore up the yard when they put in our new gas connection. I’m going to expand out into the yard so I have more area to plant sun-loving plants - I don’t want to put down grass seed. Grass is boring. And that topsoil will come in handy for the expanded veggie beds, too. I’ve started the cucumber now, and the tomatoes are getting big. I’m going to wait until the fall, I think, to try planting lettuce, since by then the tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots will be ready. As for the broccoli, I should have put it in last month, but I’m going to go for it anyway next weekend and if my heads flower because it gets too hot, I’ll cut them off and get side sprouts.