So, welcome to another gardening update! This one is a little different from the usual ones in that I'm going beyond just the vegetable garden, so please bear with me as I embark on a long ramble.

It is spring! It is a dry day, and it is trying to be sunny! It is time to garden... or, at least, work outside!

So this all started as the intention to clean up a bit of a mess behind the lower patio. That means cutting up some branches and righting (and watering) some bamboo in pots that need to be planted, followed by sweeping up the mess and throwing away any garbage.

Simple enough, yes?

Welcome in order to do that I needed the other garden cart which turned out to already be filled with garden waste. So that had to be emptied into the back of the truck for the next trip to the yard waste dump.

Of course, then I noticed that there is a pile of wood that really doesn't belong at the side of the driveway next to where we park, but should be moved downstairs into the big wood pile. The wood was cut late last year when we were trimming trees, trying to create a little more light for the apple trees.

So I loaded up the wood into the now empty cart to haul it downstairs. Of course, then I noticed that there was a big clump of daisies from last year that need to be deadheaded right there.

That doesn't really "present" very well, right there at the front of the house, and in the meantime there was some other bush (that we cut down several years ago) that was starting to shoot back up from the ground so needed to get rid of that.

So that ended up eating about 30 minutes off the clock, but it definitely does look a lot tidier than it did before!

Of course, while kneeling for about half an hour I got to see some of the latest "signs of spring" around me. Such as the calendulas we've been trying to establish for several years, which are finally taking hold and are already flowering!

And while loading the debris into the truck, I noticed that my volunteer columbines that somehow sprouted up in a random pot are actually going to set flower this year!

Meanwhile, I am pondering why slugs seem to be decimating our hyacinths... but nothing else.

But now I must really get that load of wood downstairs which is what I originally needed to do. Wait... no... the wood was actually also a side track; originally, I just needed to empty the garden cart!

Regardless... onwards!

So the wood from the cart gets neatly stacked in the place we've determined we're going to start the next stack of newer wood to dry under the deck. Nice!

So now I'm back to where I started, about an hour ago, getting ready to clean up the end bit of the patio. And then...

SIDE QUEST!

Then there is our portable fire pit, a very sad sight because the side grating has completely rusted out. Meaning that it no longer holds a "contained fire."

I suppose most people would just look at it and say "Oh, just take it to the dump and buy a new one," but the rest of it is structurally sound and we have some galvanized hardware cloth somewhere so I figured why not just fix it?

About 40 minutes later...

Although it had very little to do with my original gardening project, we now have a reasonably functional fire pit again, for a total cost of... parts we already had on hand.

Even managed to complete it, without cutting or scratching myself on rusty metal or wires!

We now rejoin a regularly scheduled programming, already in progress.

Of course, I actually did have an ulterior motive for taking on this particular side quest, which was that we have a lot of super dry twigs and brush that are a pain in the rear to put in the back of the truck and we're not allowed to have fires unless they are within a contained fire pit.

So now that's possible.

And it's amazing how much seemingly bulky and prickly branches can be cut down to almost nothing, which is why I prefer the fire pit over hauling to the dump.

And so, I managed to circle back to the original project of cleaning up the end of the back patio. The bamboo in the pots have all been righted and thoroughly watered, and should be ready to plant when we get the space they're going into ready for them. Right now, it is covered with nettles...

Then I could finally get around to my original reason for coming outside (before noticing the patio mess!), which was to do a bit of work in the Laughing Dragon Garden!

Alas, it was not to be. Following a week of consistently heavy rains, our previously mentioned drainage system had plugged up again, so @denmarkguy had to put on his mud gear and go out and clear things up and now we're back to draining. Should only take a couple of days for the ground to stop being mushy.

I was excited to see, however, that our herb bed — which was the first thing that got worked on a couple of weeks back — was literally jumping with new growth! We're definitely going to have a bumper crop of both chives and marjoram.

But what made me really happy was to see that there is new growth from the base of my tarragon plant (closest to the bricks). Tarragon is an extremely finicky thing to grow around here, and often fails, but this seems to be quite a healthy plant and I'm glad it's coming back!

Tarragon is great for influsing vingears for salads, and it's essence is a part of making a good béarnaise sauce.

Finally, to round out today, I also managed to pick some fresh arugula to have with dinner! Last year's plants must have thrown a lot of seed, because there are new plants everywhere in our lettuce beds!

Thanks for visiting — till the next one!

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All photos are my own!