Busy

This morning, I pulled up the butterfly bush with the split stem. I read a tip somewhere about not trying to nurse every single sickly thing back to health. We also removed the dying evergreen by the front entrance. I can't decide if it leaves a charming asymetry -- or just a bad gap. An anonymous shrub at the back came up, too. Having let go of three, I felt like it was okay to try to get the gardenia on the west side of the patio steps to come back. The final piece of shrub news it that we declared ourselves done with the boxwood for this year. (Did I already record Laura's directions to reach in and snap bits by hand? She said aim to take out 1/3 each spring, and that should make them tidier, in three years. We might have only reached the 1/4 mark.)

This afternoon, Phil applied a combination broad-leaf weed killer and fertilizer to the front and back lawns. It's phosphate-free, but we read belatedly that we need to keep the cat off of it.

I added some dried manure to the vegetable garden, and I planted a second row of snow peas. I planted lettuce seed in a couple of pots on the patio steps.

Tulips look great -- I really don't remember planting so many last fall, but I know that what was here last spring looked nearly spent.