Little Projects Everywhere

My apologies for the lack of a Friday post, again, but the last couple of weeks have been overwhelming in more ways than one. As we know all too well, the world is a scary place right now and those of us who live in the country have the luxury of keeping busy in the garden or around the house. That’s what I’ve been doing, in part to keep my mind positive, in part because some things were pressing and needed to be taken care off asap. Nevertheless, I thought I’d give you a glimpse into our projects, the challenges and small triumphs we’ve had along the way as well as an update to what’s going on in the garden. 

First off, we cleaned our gutters! By ourselves! I was holding the ladder, Ivan was brave enough to climb it and remove what we suspect was two-maybe-three years of debris. We got to the 75% of our front/back perimeter.  The back side of the house is way too high for either of us to dare climb it so we’ll hire it out, but we still count it as a huge success!

After a heavy rain storm the other week, dried up leaves and debris covered the front windows and that’s how we discovered that cleaning gutters is something homeowners do regularly,  once or twice a year depending on location and number of trees around, to avoid clogged water spouts that could lead to water damage and whatnot. Serious stuff! Anyway, ignorance is not bliss but we managed to clean out several buckets of rotten leaves and soil and used them as organic add-ons for some of our garden beds.

And on the topic of garden beds, our lilac tree desperately needed some TLC which kept me busy on a ladder several afternoons last week. We’ve been here less than a year and it’s the first time we got to see it blooming. It wasn’t pretty. The lack of pruning in previous years as well as age and pachysandra crowding out the base have made the flowers look puny and undeveloped, as if the tree is not getting enough food or water, or something. I googled and watched youtube videos on how to help lilac shrubs recapture their youth and found it needed serious pruning, fertilizer and water during dry summer days. I trimmed as much of the old, dried out branches as I could and right after the blooms started wilting, I pruned and pruned and pruned some more, being careful not to remove more than 1/3 of the shrub. We also worked hard to remove all the pachysandra around it and added organic material, with plans of creating a curved garden bed on the shaded side of the house. But more about that some other time. 

Yesterday we finally got around to hanging some prints in the living room, using Martha’s method (more about that too next week, when I’ll have some nice pics to show you). I also had some red spray paint laying around which I used to makeover a small wicker stool that will go in Isabella’s room as a fun side table beside her reading chair. 

Back to the garden, I discovered that our peony bush has powdery mildew so I ordered a fungicide and sprayed it hoping for the best. The shrub had lovely, floppy blooms this week but the leaves are in terrible shape, covered in white powdery patches. Have you had it happen to your plants? Is it treatable or this is the end? 🙁  It seems that the fungus is caused by moisture and lack of enough direct sunshine. It sits between two mature trees and now I’m surprised it even bloomed at all. I might consider moving it to a better spot this fall, if such a spot exists in our yard. (So far we’ve detected two microclimates – full & scorching sun or mostly shady, nothing in between. )

And some good news, the roses we planted earlier this spring, they’ve bloomed nicely and are starting to climb our arbor! Doing a little happy dance!

I know it will take several years for them to cover the entire arch and have them looking as lovely as I imagined them but this image of Cammy Pollak’s kitchen garden gives me so much hope!! 

And finally, the time has come to thoroughly and carefully prime and paint the fence (again). I won’t be using oil paint after all, because our picket fence panels were pressure treated, but I will be using a strong, stain-blocking primer for exterior use, followed by high gloss latex exterior paint. Fingers crossed I’ll be more patient this time around and I’ll do a better job. 

How about you, dear friends? How are you holding up? Any fun projects to keep you occupied these days? Enjoy the weekend & take care!!