Spring has sprung

Spring is now here. I know this because I haven't had to wear thermal underwear for at least 4 weeks. And because it rains almost without warning.

Garden story of the day: yesterday we came home and noticed the neighbor's cat, Smokey, hanging out on the patio in the back, periodically knocking on the basement door. Those of you who were here for the May 2 party remember Smokey as the cat who tried to walk into the basement as if he owned the place. At the same time, the neighborhood wild cat was hanging out in his regular spot underneath the dogwood tree. Well, we had one of those sudden downpours. Smokey ran to the bushes. Within seconds the orange cat bolts out from under the dogwood, and scrambles over the fence to find shelter. Apparently he was "Smokey-d" out.

Yesterday was our anniversary, so we decided to begin planning what to do with the garden in the back. We started off in the late morning at the Garden in the Woods, which is an arboretum of native New England plants. For those in Massachusetts, it's worth a visit but bring your bug spray. After lunch, we took a walk through the Fenway Victory Gardens to get ideas about hardscaping. The ideas we came away with include meandering walks, blue stone and brick, a central raised patio-like area, big pots, and moss. Those are only ideas at the moment, obviously the devil is in the details.

As far as plants go, our goal is to stick to native species for anything we add to the back. We'll also be getting rid of any and all invasive species. We've only identified a few of the plants in the back. Of course, we know that we have grape vines, but we still have no idea what species of grape. All we know is they are sweet, green grapes. We have identified the dogwood as cornus kousa "summer fun"which looks like this right now but should put out some pretty white flowers later this summer. We also know that we have a pussy willow, specifically salix discolor, which puts out these fuzzy catkins in the spring. The catkins have been replaced by dark green leaves. The tree is now a favorite hangout spot for the birds. We thought we had identified one of the shrubs (actually we have 4-5 of these) as eunymous alata aka "burning bush" which is an invasive species. Upon further investigation, it looks like it is something from the rose family. Either way, we are going to get rid of them. We don't like them. We don't want our plants to be "armed."

In other news, we finally had the oil tank removed. Apparently there was more than 150 gallons of oil left in the tank. We managed to give about 40 gallons to one of our neighbors. The rest was removed and recycled. It was not easy but they finally got it out.
Todd accidentally nicked the cold water pipe when removing one of the oil pipes, but he sent a plumber over to fix it. Everything was done in one day. Now, we have this space:
which we plan to brick up and turn into a wine cellar. Cool, heh?

Have a Happy Memorial Day. You can support the troops by supporting their children. Go to Donors Choose and donate to the public school classrooms of students with parents in the military.