Spring Fever
It is a glorious day outside, 45F! I have the windows cracked to let some of the fresh air goodness in. My patio windchime caught my eye this morning, the central glass piece was positively glowing in the midmorning sun. Spring fever has hit strongly and I feel the overwhelming urge to to indulge my nesting instincts, the equinox is only 22 days away! However, I promised to take it easy until this sciatic thing eases up, so sitting down I am.
Still, it is nearly impossible to stay put with all this gorgeous sunny day energy filtering into my home. I really want to get outside and garden (though it is wayyy to early in the season for that, this warm up cycle is just a tease) so I have tried to content myself with planning what I am going to do with our patio, (which is 3/4 concrete, 1/4 dirt.)
The dirt portion looks especially dejected right now, the snow has mostly melted off it revealing the few miscellaneous and mostly useless plastic pots I have out there. I see this area of our home as the biggest challenge, the soil is horrid - I can hardly call it soil. It is compact and full of gravel. It also receives very little sunlight during the day because our proximity to the next row of townhouse. Maybe 2/3 hours of morning sun and then 1.5 hours of partial shade on either side of that, so 5 hours of workable light, maybe 6… So it will most certainly be shade garden as well as very simple this year with the main focus on improving the soil. Can we say compost? Perhaps I will seed it will some prairie legumes (like Purple Prairie Clover) which fix nitrogen in the soil (improve soil quality.) I would love to grow some kind of shade loving vine on the wooden fence, not sure how much my neighbors would love me though if it turned out to be a prolific grower… I am not very well versed in shade plants (I have always been more of a vegetable gardener) so this is all a unique challenge.
As for the rest of the patio, 3 feet of the other side is taken up my Michael and my bicycles and a storage shelf, leaving about 7 square feet of concrete in the middle. Long and short term plans here remain very simple, a kettle grill, a small patio set (probably from a thrift store, I will know it when I see it!) and a few container plants.
Garden space has always been very important to me. I hate the hard edges of the city and even though Spokane is pretty green, I still feel that I am a million miles away from Mother Earth sometimes. Even the smallest gardens help me reconnect and as I nurture them, in return they nurture my soul.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:04 pm
In the upper 50’s here and like you I have the window open enjoying
the spring tease. It can’t get here soon enough!
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March 1st, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Instead of cultivating the horrid dirt, you might consider building a raised bed and fill that with good dirt and compost.
Till/dig/loosen the top of the horrid dirt so the bed will drain, though. And to keep the varmits out, line the bottom of the raised bed with chicken wire.
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