Naked Ladies on a Hot Summer's Day

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Today, we heard that the City of Oakland approved our application for the permits needed to replace our foundation.

This means that the jack-hammering commences tomorrow!




And that means that the plants growing next to our foundation needed to be moved, pronto! Of course, today was hot, hot, hot, and not a good day for transplanting anything. But it was either move the plants in the heat, or watch them get trampled and jack-hammered.




The soil next to the house is the stuff of gardeners' dreams, black, friable, just lovely. Digging out these plants (which I think are Calla Lilies) was insanely easy. Replanting them was another story. The soil in my back yard is hard-packed silt, with the density of stone. I think that digging through the sidewalk might have been easier than digging in this soil. But it had to be done.




While I was at it, I also tackled the pathetically overgrown mass of Naked Ladies. (What did you think this blog post was about, anyway?) These bulbs were in miserable condition, strangling on each other. I broke the clump of bulbs apart, as best as I could and replanted them with lots of breathing room.




The more I work in this garden, the more I wonder: When was the last time someone took care of this place? I cannot believe the sad, neglected state of this garden.


Comments

Becky said…
I just flashed on my fave kidhood book, "The Secret Garden." One of the most satisfying aspects was the rehabilitation of the old, overgrown garden.. so magical. Seeing you breathing life back into your garden is magical as well!

Love from "Black Thumb" Becky
Lisa said…
Oh, yeah! I do love The Secret Garden. The message of magic and redemption, by way of gardening sure works for me!
Anonymous said…
Well your plants sure seem to love that soil! Digging them and transplanting them is a great idea- do you need to use bone meal for those plants? Is your soil a sand or clay-based type?

I used to dig up and divide my hostas every year since they grew so much and I called around and discovered that Habitat for Humanity will also accept plant donations for free landscaping around the houses and community parks they put in (in Detroit, anyway).

Pick out a spot to put in a future veggie garden and toss all your old plant matter onto it- your packed soil is probably starved for some sort of activity- physical or micro-biological, both.

Fall leaves are starting to turn here. We won 2 ribbons at the local fair- first place for giant sunflowers, and 4th for a seriouisly freaky cauliflower.

Did you have your soil tested yet? Try to get some sleep if you guys can! HA! I know what you are doing to get the place ready, and you guys are probably sleeping 4 hours a night, right?! We did that for 6 months till we surrendered to "Well, maybe that shelf actually IS straight and I can learn to live with it".

Annalisa and Gary
Eli and I just read "Al Capone Does My Shirts" - a young adult book about a kid who's family lived on Alcatraz in the 1930's. I read it because one of the characters is an autistic girl. Eli, of course, liked the Alcatraz and Al Capone parts ;-))

So (to make a long story short, and not trying to be presumptuous by giving you info about your part of the world ;-)) we went to the NPS site to read up on Alcatraz. Turns out in the rehabilitation of the area to a National Park, they did/are doing work on the garden areas that the families had. It's rather fascinating, as they have found some plants that are still in the place they were planted 100 years ago. And they found an heirloom rose that was thought to be extinct. So.... sometimes grown up gardens yield great surprises!! Hope yours does the same!!
Troop 2440 said…
I'm reading The Secret Garden to Lindsay right now! Just be thankful that you don't have teeth popping up out of your soil like here in Brooklyn!
Knit Wit said…
Well, I learned something new! I'd never heard of naked ladies (the floral sort, that is) so I had to look them up. They sound a bit like spider lilies. I'd attempt to grow them but I don't have much luck with spider lilies so naked ladies probably won't like me either. Sigh...
Kristen said…
I spent the entirety of this past Sunday in the Cambridge University Botanic Garden giggling and taking pictures of pretty plants. they have this nifty greenhouse filled with interesting non-natives that was so steamy it made my hair curl that had a lovely spider lily on display. (you had to walk under a tumbling waterfall of orchids to get to it. it was gorgeous.) anyway, i fell in love with it and want one, but alas, they don't like the cool, low-humidity raininess of London. And I have a horrible track record with plants. alas.

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