Potted

I decided to transplant the Dracena marginata I lopped off a while back as there were a few roots poking out of the bottom of the pot. (Photo did not turn out.) There were fewer roots than I expected, so the poor thing feels unstable. Also, Beau the Feline Destroyer of All Things Nice kept trying to nibble on the leaves while I worked. The repotted plant is back in my bedroom (where the cats are forbidden - one too many episodes of puke on the bedding). It seems to be doing okay on the dresser despite the lack of direct sunlight.

Besides not being able to find the heating mat for seed starting, I also cannot find the doodad I have for making little pots from newspaper. The New York Times came to my rescue with instructions for making these pots which use a tomato paste can for the form. I went to town.

I think there are about 44 pots here, all filled with potting soil. The seeds are out of the refrigerator. I just need to decide what and how much to plant. There will be herbs, hollyhocks, and zinnias for sure.

I subscribe to the digital edition of the New York Times, but receive a hardcopy of the local paper. I've contemplated going paperless with the latter as well, but I use a lot of the newspaper in the garden and for various and sundry things. I guess I'll keep getting it for now.

I worked on cutting down the big bluestem this past week and came to the conclusion that there are THREE plants, not four. Three of them flop and do not form a clump; what I thought was a fourth plant is a clump of something else, silvergrass, I presume. For a while, I was mistakenly identifying some silvergrass as big bluestem; I must have moved it, thinking it was joining its cousins.

The lawn service came and applied fertilizer and a pre-emergent to the front lawn. They leave a little sign in the yard as advertisement, but given the state of my lawn, they might not want to do that yet. I don't expect any miracles there.

Per usual, I like to sit on the deck in favorable weather and plot changes to the yard. Last summer, I moved a lot of plants around. I was contemplating something similar for this summer or next, but the thought struck me that I don't particularly like everything in my yard. My habit has been, You plant it, you keep it. But some shrubs are too big, others too small, some uninspiring, many perennials that I love are missing, etc. My eye has become much more critical now that there is less room for stuff. It's time to take inventory and decide if I want to keep, replace, or just plain remove some things.