Still digging that dirt in 2026

Half of January already gone.

My ploy giving grandkids gift cards to a local shop has paid off. Callum couldn’t decide what to buy, so he will be back. Olivia let her mom choose something via text photos. Elly came and we had a nice half day visit. She looks good in anything. The long skirt that was totally forgettable on the hanger looked fantastic on. And you could easily imagine her dressing it up or down.
She will be back too, as I told her about an inexpensive jewelry shop and showed items found there.

College classes have begun. I’m also meeting with a few students who want to be politically active.

I have a new neighbor across the street. I caught her trying to wrestle a huge piece off the back of a truck by herself; and went over to help. Lovely young woman from Corbin. She’s a college student at UK, studying neuroscience. Her dog is Nommy. Her cats are Habanero and Strawberry. She has already charmed me with what she has put up on a display wall. Nature, magic and politics all mixed together.

I’m messing with my buttons a lot as well as taming the piles in attic and basement.

Riveted to social media accounts of ICE. Hoping we can get our local act together sooner than later.

I love my neighborhood. A young woman in a black trench coat just walked by blowing soap bubbles into the air.

We’re in the ice corridor for the big storm coming through this weekend. Here’s hoping we don’t lose electricity. I’m not sure how long my house would maintain temps that wouldn’t freeze pipes.
Otherwise I’m in good shape. The grocery store still has plenty of milk and bread. And I bought a bunch of the dark chocolate cherries on holiday clearance.

The homeless have permission to stay at Motel 6 till Monday. We’ll be bringing dinners to pass out in the motel lobby.

My front door was still dragging and hard to open last week. So I took just a little bit down on the threshold with the palm sander.
It was still tight for a couple of days and then suddenly was free. Of course now there is a draft coming in.
I did find a draft stop at Ollie’s. It’s a few inches too short, so I’ve also got a rug tangled up there.
I wish I had gotten the new storm door up.

Snow and then ice this weekend. Seems less severe than they’d feared.
One of my gutters came down in the middle of the night. Not much use doing anything outside as everything is ice welded to the ground or to other objects. I did bring materials from the basement to build a tent over my exterior heat pump unit to keep the ice out. The trees and shrubs are all beautifully coated.
Parked on the street yesterday and managed to clear half of the driveway. But temps are supposed to hover between 3° and 18° for the entire week.
I should pull the crockpot out and make a pot of something.

We’re back to fluffy snow dropping on top of the crusted ice and temps in the teens.

The area is pretty well shut down.

New neighbor was walking her dog so I yelled an invitation to come for tea.
She stayed longer than I would have expected; but we exchanged much information and she’s going to a community meeting with me tomorrow.

I’m doing an okay job keeping the house in order.

Digging that ice today. The city trucks have been scraping the street and piling up around my car. I neglected to do anything about it and the tires are both buried and frozen to the ground. So chopped away some of the ice, but the wheels won’t roll.
I can walk to class tomorrow.
Lent Maria an extension cord and hair dryer and she got her tires to spin, but though we tried to add traction, we were unsuccessful. She has class in Lexington and has a weekend job out of town.

I finally got my car out and parked around the corner, because pulling back into my spot is like tipping it into a bowl.
The city came by and scraped but only left a higher barrier.
I had cleared the top half of my driveway, but the several inches of ice slid off the carport roof and filled the pavement again.
I’ve been hiking to class and carrying a staff for stability crossing the barriers. It has rescued three other people too. One person hit a patch of ice at the top of stairs from the parking lot and fell three times before I got to him. He was able to grab the staff and pull clear.
My birdfeeder has been beset by crowds. I’ve thrown seed out on the ground so the little ones don’t have to compete with the bigger bullies.

It’s supposed to warm to the 40s and even 50s next week. Hurrah!
I’ve put my snowman collection away and slammed the lid.

Low 20s here today, but the sun is shining and found a good job melting roof accumulation. Which, in the back is only making more ice mess on the deck and coating the siding. Oh well. There will be some repair work to do. At least there is little snow/ice still behind the chimney. I’ve been monitoring for leakage.

My front roof, better insulated than neighbors, still has most of the snow, but also a growing eyelash of ice hanging horizontally from the gutters. I’ve never seen this before.

Rose and T came up yesterday and stayed till today. Anne came from Cinci just for yesterday. But she brought an “adopted” grandson. Ace is 18 months, and his mom, a friend of Liv, has moved into their house for a while. He’s delightful, friendly, cuddly and just prances from one adventure to the next.
Of course we had a tea party and he picked up on the rules with glee.

Rose and I picked up an oak library table she found on Facebook Marketplace for $60. It will be her sewing project table. Thankfully, the legs were easy to detach so it fit in her vehicle.
T decided to stay here while Rose went visiting and erranding today. We had an excellent time; as much fun as when she was two and coming every day.

The day was gorgeous at 60° and brilliant blue sky. We tramped around the neighborhood and the yard, as everyone else was doing too. She wants to build a fairy house, so I showed her a couple and we made some plans.
Her working vocabulary is astounding. ‘Rhetorical’ and ‘artifact’ for example.

Oh, and her opinion about my “stuff” has changed. For a while, she thought I had too much. She has a better appreciation at age 8. We also discussed creating a dungeon/pirate’s den in miniature.

We had a light snowfall recently, and the city overcompensated putting salt down. There are drifts of it at the intersections. Yesterday I swept some up and collected 6+ gallons. I timed it right, as we’ve got light rain today and the rest melted.

It’s a shame more people aren’t here in this group anymore.

I had to strip down to one layer of clothing today while I raked the leaf mulch away from the base of my lovely trellises so I could put some pea seeds in the ground. I soaked them first and it’s supposed to rain in the next few days. So I have hopes, even though the seed is not fresh.

This will be the first time they will have something to climb.

I pulled up a stray carrot. I look forward to feasting on it. The winter supposedly sweetens them.

I suspect we will see more activity as the weather warms up.

I hope so.

It was supposed to rain Th/F and today. Instaed we got bright skies and shorts weather. So I got some garden time, pruning and clearing old weeds from a few places.

It is now raining, so they weren’t entirely wrong.

I was supposed to have some family this weekend, but they caught a stomach virus. I have been wrestling with the spare bedrooms and switching from winter decor to spring.

A bit of a patio clean up, as I was going to the recycling center today, and they have bins for random rubbish too. Several shattered clay pots and some nasty rotting burlap and broken plastic bins.

More gladiolas for that late summer dash of color. I’m filling in beds that have had just spring color till now.

Three more nights next week forecast for the 20s, so I’ve put a few pots out but still bringing them in at night. One geranium cutting is eager to get out there - it’s already blooming on the windowsill.

I visited Rose this weekend. We had a very nice ramble in a nature preserve within the county.
I came home with three dozen eggs and passed them around to neighbors. One reciprocated with ramps; half still with good roots. I planted those out in a few spots in my yard. They prefer moist spots, so I’m not entirely hopeful. But it’s worth trying.

My peas are emerging from the leaf litter.

The grocery store was selling onion sets by the pound. So I got both yellow and red. At $1.29/lb, quite a bit cheaper than the other places that sell them for a couple dollars a bundle.

Back to the farm overnight, as Anne was visiting Rose and we three needed to discuss something in person.

Lovely evening on the patio, with a nearly full moon rising. In the trees, we saw… fireflies!! In March!!

Crazy!

Dreamy succulent garden

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTkMBr4MG/

I sent Jerry off to church with produce for the first time this year. The spinach is doing so well. Most of it is still thinings, but I also picked some individual large leaves around the edges of my patch. We had a big salad last night. Both lollo roso and oak leaf lettuce, Vogerlsalat and baby spinach, but it's getting hard to find the little leaves, hence the harvest for church.

>19 MarthaJeanne: I haven’t managed to incorporate simple greens into my gardens yet. It’s a personal failing.

I got a sunburnt nose yesterday while weeding and had to rake heat breaks. Woke up to 45° chill and forecasts for the week into the 30s. Hmpf! It gave me the opportunity to clear the second bedroom and drag all my potted plants back inside.

The weeping peach still has some vivid color, but it’s dropping petals quickly now.

My neighbors were adding plants to their front yard yesterday and said they were from Tractor Supply. I had the itch too, and the other nurseries are not open yet.
Bought tulips already done, but reasonably priced, some heavenly hyacinths and a small pot of purslane.

Ooops, that should have been in my topic, not yours. I have learnt that for our climate, I need to sow spinach and Vogerlsalat in September. Then I have at least limited greens all winter, and this time of year, when vitamin cravings get strong, I really have something to harvest.

Bright sun and cloudless blue sky today along with much cooler temperatures. Woke to municipal trucks pulling up outside for a major disruption. They are using my street front to stash materials and equipment, but the work will proceed on the street that Ts just west of my house. Both water and sewer lines are being replaced. The men on the ground are clear about today’s work, but much hazier about the 3 week plan they mentioned.

Still gathering up vacant pots from around the yard and surveying what’s coming up, both weeds and welcome items like asparagus and strawberries. The strawberries are very good at escaping their beds, which is fine with me.

>22 2wonderY: Since I'm allergic, I used to upset the boys by ripping out weeds that spread into the lawn. I had strawberry plants all around the bed down from the terrace to the lawn. Plants there counted as strawberries. Others were weeds. Strawberries need to have their babies trained to where you want them.

Here there were lots of alpine strawberries when we moved in, but Jerry has never been willing to harvest them. There are very few left, and those are between the raised beds and the fence along with lots of weeds and slugs. I don't actually do much there.

I got most of my strawberry harvest last year from the plants that escaped down the hill. This is an eager variety.

I stopped back to tractor supply today to see if those tulips were on clearance. They were, but the new price was distinctly not a bargain. I told the employee so; and he must have been a manager, because he offered them to me at $1/pot if I bought them all. Paid $26 for 182 bulbs. That’s 15 cents each. Now that’s a deal!

College greenhouse sale on Saturday.
Sulvatica Farms was outside again and I bought an Elderberry ‘Bob Gordon’ to plant at the top of the yard. I will need another variety to cross pollinate.
Two ‘Valencia’ tomatoes, two ‘Goddess’ sweet peppers (actually four, as I found 2 plants in pots.
‘Old Spice’ sweet pea, ‘Daddy Mix’ petunia, ‘Polka Dot’ bachelor buttons, ‘Planete Rouge du Jura’ poppy.

I’m making good progress cleaning the beds of last year’s debris and the million and one maple seedlings.

My spring gardens at the top of the yard are doing very well, finally. I’ll try to post pictures.

The scavenged wood I used for beds at the top of the front slope are rotting. I’m feeling prosperous enough to replace them with cedar boxes from the urban farm.

I have pain in my lower back that is okay with aspirin, but I think I must get it diagnosed, as it is recurring for the last year.

Second week of city utility work. They are using the street in front of my house to dump their gravel. Too bad I don’t need any gravel.

Alida hung a street kill possum in her pawpaw tree to “protect her fruit.” It was a whole drama with the family on her other side, as it was right on the property line. I think it’s gone now. Is she becoming unbalanced?

Also, bought a ‘Pink Miracle’ shrub rose at Aldi’s last week.
My Betty Prior rose seems to have given up the ghost, as well as a seemingly aggressive shrub rose I planted on the first backyard slope last year. I’ll need to check on its name so I don’t repeat the mistake.

BTW Elderserry coloured bird shit stains.

>27 MarthaJeanne: Noted. They will have to fight me for the fruit.

Tis the season for raised bed construction. I’m so glad I acted yesterday. The Urban Farm had only a few cedar sets left from their blitz build on Saturday.
I bought two and used them to replace the rotting pallet wood on the front slope. That took a lot less time than I imagined, because my initial landscaping labor was pretty good.

So I went back this morning to buy another one for a backyard spot replacement, and the 11 buckets of dirt to nominally fill it. I say that because it will really go into my established vegetable gardens, which seem to suck dirt and leaf mold into an unending pit. It is never satisfied.

I visited the Crab Orchard greenhouses on Monday, and I have a carload of plants to get into the ground and pots.
More than enough projects!

There has been earth moving work behind one of the school buildings near where I park. I mosied over there to see what is in the dumpster. Nothing useful unless I want to cut some rebar out of the concrete chunks.
But on the other side, they have removed pavers (12” x 12” x 2”) and they’ve got pallets of smaller pavers on hand for replacements.
I helped myself to a couple dozen of the discards. They will replace the wood walkway I installed for the mail delivery person. They don’t use the sidewalks, but cut across the yards.
I’ve got part of them placed and taking a rest before unloading the rest.
I’m keeping an eye out for neighbor Tim. He’s been preparing a similar path for the same purpose. He may not be interested, as he was talking river rock. But hey, it’s only available for a limited time.

Back to work.

I’m cleaning up under the weeping peach tree. It’s got a thick leaf mulch, which doesn’t discourage three weeds. Creeping Charlie, of course, but also wintercreeper and Oriental Bittersweet. It has to be the birds sitting in the tree through the winter and pooping out the seeds. Who knew I was creating such a problem for myself.
I had nearly eradicated wintercreeper from the yard. Someone must be letting it climb, because that’s when it sets berries. Also, the bittersweet is probably rampant in the woods to the south of the subdivision. They are tough to yank out and the root is orange.

Oy! Working on the west front slope this morning. So many weeds!!!

Had to clear a space for a ground cover rose - the ‘Oso Easy Peasy’ - I have great hopes for it in this spot. But I can’t stand on this slope, even with rocks to help me. I had to dig a nice deep hole, and find materials to anchor into the front to hold soil till it establishes itself. Took me 2 hours and my legs are wobbly.

There are specimens of other types that seem to be okay and are showing up amongst the weeds, so I had to be careful.
Today is the only rain forecast, so I do want to get some stuff into the ground.

I have a plumbing issue at the back hose bib and I’m also down a hose. So watering in the back yard is a problem this season.

It’s in the mid40s this morning and too cold to garden. I brought potted plants inside again and covered other tenders outside.

Rose and T stopped by yesterday afternoon for a brief visit. They went to Cinci this weekend. Thankfully, the house was still cleaned from last week’s visit by an old friend moving to SC.

I visited Connie’s the farmers market and got a half dozen plants. A Veronica ‘Lavender Lightsaber’ to pot, and a Catmint ‘Cat’s Meow’ to add to the front slope. I forget the rest at the moment and too lazy to go write it down.
Thyme ‘Pink Chintz’
Columbine
Lavender
A ground creeper I forgot to record. Speedwell, which is actually a Veronica ‘Georgia Blue.’

Neighbor Joan asked if I wanted to go back out to Crab Orchard. Sure! We went yesterday. I bought a very modest one flat.
Two more dahlias
Two lantanas
Helichrysum ‘White Licorice’
…..

I really came here to complain about the weather.
We’ve been counting on the forecast of rain today - 90%.
That has completely disappeared now! WTF? Nothing till Tuesday now.

Quick trip to visit Connie. She did not have much that I wanted. I got another Veronica ‘Blue Candles’ this time and a delicately colored Garden Phlox ‘Fashionably Early Lavender Ice.’
I enjoyed watching two girls (age 7 - 11 probably) choosing their first garden plants.

Spent the day digging and hauling and then watering.

We did get a gusty thunderstorm in the middle of the night. It gave an inch or so of rain. I hit dry soil pretty quickly this morning putting stuff in the ground.
Working on getting the veggies in mostly.
I quit temporarily when I brushed up against the only poison ivy in the yard. I knew it was there, but…
Hard to tell if we’ll get more rain. 30% chance today, 90% tomorrow and then nothing for another week.

I got many plants in the ground yesterday, but not all. I should have, as today is the soaking rain that I’ve been praying for.
Instead, I started a new project at the top of the first slope. It’s been a ragged edge, comprised of 4x4 wood Timbers just rolled into place. It’s fine as a mowing edge, but fails as a barrier for the Burmuda grass that infiltrates the beds. I will attempt to create a better barrier; which meant going to scavenge a handful more of pavers.
I also emptied the water bin in the vegetable garden and will try to seat it better. I’ve also done the same with the wood walkbridge next to it.

Today will be a good day to sort library books and make a decision about fall class.

The gardens are looking more lush today. I did get more plants in the ground later in the day. Temps keep fluctuating; it’s now in the 40s.

I need another trip to buy one more load of soil this season.

All sunshine today, but my body is still tired. Feels oh so good to relax on the couch.

We had a tragic bank robbery here on Thursday afternoon. The guy shot and killed both bank employees and fled on foot. The bank is just two blocks from my house. Until they knew he’d parked his car elsewhere and fled up the interstate, the town was in lockdown.
I’m still wondering how random his choice of targets was. I happened to be at my bank at exactly the same time.
He was caught the next morning, and appears to be a royal asshole. He posted a brag meme that evening on social media.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTkpwj8sk/

Temps dropped into the 30s again last night. I put sheets over the tomato plants and brought the potted geraniums inside again.

Bonus unscheduled shower early this morning.

Looks like the city intends to start replacing the street paving they tore up with plumbing repairs. They came and placed a sign this morning and then left.

I’m going to see my doctor this morning concerning an itchy sore on my arm that hasn’t resolved and seems to be traveling up my vein. Is it a spider bite? It’s at least a week old, perhaps more.

I was on that side of town today to pick up an antibiotic prescription; so I stopped at the tiny Williams Greenhouse. Generously sized plants, all wonderful colors and excellent prices.
Echeveria 'Big Bang’
2 Pineapple Sage
and more
Alternanthera ‘Burgundy Threadleaf’
Gomphrena ‘Pinball Purple’
Angelonia ‘Big Cherry’
Salvia ‘Dark Matter’
Dianthus ‘Rockin’ Red’

Only the last one advertises as a perennial.

I splurged for Mothers Day and invested in an Elderberry ‘Eva’ which looks a lot like ‘Black Lace’

Still cleaning up the veg beds and planting seeds. Beans should be today’s project.

I feel like I’m chaos gardening this year, not keeping good records.

I went back for another load of pavers and I think I’m done. I’m using some for a mowing berm along the top of the east front slope. I have to remove soil to get them flush, so I do a bit at a time. I strung a line and still need to remove corms and bulbs that protrude. Carrying the dirt a bucket at a time up to the backyard beds. My body is fine with all of this.

I’ve got 4 barrels of yard waste ready for the monthly pickup. I realized that there’s so much because I stopped gardening last year for a season. Alida’s building made me too mad to be out there. It sits empty and unused. She found out how expensive it would be to get utilities up to it as appears to have quit the idea of moving into it. Her yard is shabbier than usual this year. But my trees and shrubs have made some progress shielding the view.
It again dropped into the 40s at night this week. Tomatoes and peppers are not happy.

I did find another patch of asparagus in the weeds. Nothing to harvest this year, but 4 patches showing life.

I have two elderberry bushes, planted last year, They're from different sources so hopefully different varieties.

Rose brought me two Dahlia tubers for Mothers Day.
‘Sylvia Maarn’ and ‘Diva.’ I decided to pot them so I can keep track of them better.
My patio, devoted to the potting process, is back to some order. And I’m working on cleaning up the deck.

The street crew are back this morning. They only “prepared” the streets last week and then left us hanging. They’ve been out there just warming up the equipment for an hour. And of course it’s now raining.

Thank God for the rain, say I and my plants!

I’ve been battling the little patch of lawn that’s left in the front. It has all the wrong species. Burmuda grass that keeps invading my gardens. Crabgrass that throws off a million seeds. And a bunch grass that lays flat until it shoots up wire tough stems with its seed. I’ve spent the last few days removing a lot of this last one. I’ve got half a barrel of it. I’ve got perennial ryegrass to sow; but that’s not till the fall. So until then, I keep pulling the nasties.

I’m expecting my girls this weekend, so inside cleaning is scheduled today.

Odd. A painting on canvas just tumbled from the wall in the other room. 4:30 am. Hanger still on the wall and wire still intact on the canvas. It’s been there undisturbed for 5 years.

Pavers finished two streets yesterday and will be back today to do mine, the longest stretch. They are contract company, but I saw a city employee in his truck and asked about drainage and broken concrete along the curb and at the bottom of my driveway. He took pictures and said the city would probably address the issues. Yay!

Today is scheduled yard debris pickup but they regularly run up to a week late. A neighbor up the street has two mountains of tree removal. I’ve been eying one of the pieces of trunk.
Made great progress on 2nd bedroom and deck. Upstairs has been out of control mess.

Finally, finally my street is getting new asphalt today.

We have had some heavy rains earlier this week. My garden is happy. But my chimney is leaking again. The wallboard can be poked through with my finger and chunks torn out. I’m begging my son-in-law to take in the job. He is busy with a big project with his brother but I am promising him a premium to do it sometime this year.

The neighborhood looks so tidy now, I took a closer look at my frontage. I had planted what I thought were cherry tree saplings on the first west slope. They turned out to be a wild cherry; not even bothering to fruit, but looking weedy. I removed one last year, and the other today. That exposes some large bare spots, so I will see what Connie can sell me tomorrow to help fill in.
I also finished the paver strip at the top of the east front slope. Dug deeper than I needed to in order to remove more Burmuda grass roots. It progresses.

Connie only had two pots I was interested in - both very tall specimens. A liatris, already blooming and showier than the ones that volunteer for me. A Malva ‘Zebrina’ that has more pinky-purple than other specimens I’ve bought from her. It’s lovely! Mine have never come back or even seeded. Maybe this one will.

My neighbor across the street brought a whole crew Saturday and moved out. I guess she missed her old groups too much to stay here, 40 minutes away.

Nathan and Rose are coming up Wednesday for two reasons.
1 - to look at my chimney
2 - to look at a few houses on the market.!!!! They are considering moving back here!

>48 2wonderY: moving back? Oh, wouldn't that be wonderful!

My daughter sent me this text:

“ I told T “ you’re as cute as a button and as sharp as a nail” and she said “ I do not know what that means but you probably learned it from nana because she loves buttons and she’d probably be a carpenter if she weren’t retired””

They’re coming to visit this weekend.

My yard is looking pretty spruce, except for the fact that my weeping peach tree up and died. Very sad!
That side of the front yard has a gaping hole in the center. I’ve placed some potted flowers to help fill the gap.

Serious storms are forecast for tomorrow. Got the mowing done today. It takes so little time anymore.

Starting to eat fresh tomatoes.
I’m harvesting peas now for the dried seeds.

Last weekend’s visit was postponed to this. Nathan was going to repair my chimney. But torrential rains were forecast and delivered. So he stayed home and Rose and T came.

We got 5 inches!! Not sure if there will be more; though it seems done.

Dinner out, two tea parties (so far) and T found her heart’s desire at the Goodwill. Just last evening she described a hobby horse - just the horse head on a stick. Amazingly, there was one at the Goodwill and one ear button makes it clop. The other makes it whinny.

Glad you're okay. I just saw news about major flooding in your area. Stay safe.

Yes, we’ve had a few deaths in county. Rose decided to stay another night rather than drive home.

I pulled out games that T is finally old enough for. Racko and Pick Up Stixs. Hilarity ensued.