Rhubarb and roses

This year, in addition to "managing" the already established beds around my building, I am starting a new garden at the condo where my dad will be moving in a month. Right now, there are two fairly nice sized beds, each about 4 x 8 feet, that have only some scrappy shrubs planted. From what I can tell, they look like possibly one bed of forsythia, and one bed of mock orange. Or something else. Neither are pretty.





I feel compelled to track the path of the sun, or something. At the very least I need a compass, and possibly an astrolabe, to predict where the sun will fall, for what duration. And possibly, chart the seasonal changes in the duration of that sun coverage. Otherwise, how will I know where to plant the roses, and the rhubarb.

Stupid weather

I love spring rain. It is lovely that the newly emerged teeny plants get enough water to thrive. But this is ridiculous.

I need a warm spell, to install the drip irrigation system. And a bit of a dry spell, so that I can irrigate the garden bed, and empty the rain barrel. So that I can move it, to build a slightly higher platform of patio stones for it to sit on.

It took one day to fill. The following weeks of rain are just redundant. All I see is precious rainwater flowing away, when, if I had 16 rain barrels, I could be saving it all for the dry hot days of July.

That's life from the perspective of a rain barrel.