The domino effect

Dang it's cold this morning!  Right at the freeze - and yesterday's rain on the deck froze last night on the edges.  There are SNOW FLURRIES northwest of here this morning and the wind is bitter.  Only mid-40s today and tonight probably into 20s.  What a pain.  

At least I got some stuff done this past week while the temps were more moderate and in between rainy times.

I needed to remove several established plants (pic 1) from underneath the sunroom bay window if I were to grow tomato plants there this year.  Thing is - what to do with the plants?  Pitch? or Plant?  If Plant, then Where?  I dithered on this all spring and finally decided to grow the tall hardy pink hibiscus & the white (Milkmaid) milkweed in front of the extension of the privacy fence (midway between the white crabapple and the Gray dogwood).

I hacked off the sod and planted 25% of the hibiscus (the rest got pitched) and the whole clump of milkweed.  Fertilized and mulched with pine needles.  There ya go.  Should look nice from the deck.

Now I have space for 2-3 large tomato plants under the bay window.  Done!

Hmmmm.  Maybe not.  Look how awkward it's going to be to mow around those new plants against the fence.  And I hate using the string trimmer - it's kinda heavy.  

*sigh*  I had totally discounted doing anything along this section of fence before and it was easy enough to mow with nothing there.  But now.... DANG!  There was only one solution.  

Another lasagna bed. 

So I hauled out all the ingredients for lasagna: newspapers, water can, grass clippings.  Less than 2 hours later: a brand new bed. Yay?  It's 40" wide and 22' long.

Now it doesn't mean I have to PLANT this bed.  I can keep it mulched, maybe have a nice display of big pots/plants on top of the mulch.  Put up a trellis for flowering vines against the fence.  A lot of options.  

Luckily none of them need be implemented at this time.  All the hard work is done.  Yay!

Then - irony of ironies, just a day after making the bed, I was at the discount store and found some lovely Diablo Ninebark plants @ $3.99.  I brought home 5.  Why?  Because they were only $3.99 and the big box stores have the same size @ $19.99!  I LOVE the purple/bronze foliage. That it would get 6-8' tall.  That it will arch and be covered with creamy flowers.  That it was a fast grower. Did I have a plan for them?  No.  (Gardeners, however, work with a different type of logic: see it, love it, buy it... figure it out later. LOL)

And where does the irony come in?  A tall, wide, bronzy, showy shrub sure would look nice in front of that empty space of fence.  You know - right where I planted the hibiscus.  *sigh*  Stay tuned....

At least I'm done for a while and I can get on with .... wait.  Hold up Nellie.   Back under the bay window.  I want to plant 2 cuke vines right in the ground (not pots this year).  Those white daffs need to come out.  And go where?  

And so it goes.  I understand there is actually a game called dominos.  I wonder if THAT game goes on for days and weeks like the garden domino game does.

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12:30 pm - it's snowing...

Next day update: 

It's been a wild 24 hrs.  

Yesterday's light freeze, then a day of snow, then hail and a solid freeze last night.   

Glad I covered some of the tenders out there. 

Hopefully this is the last of this kind of cold crap. 

Fingers crossed.