Much Mulch

When we got up this morning and asked Alexa what the temperature was, neither of us expected her answer: 29 degrees!  Apparently, Green Bay set a new record cold for this date.  Oh, good.  Just what we wanted to hear...

Of course, that did not stop us from going outside to work.  By the time we ventured out an hour  or so later, the temperatures had risen to a "reasonable" 44 degrees.  We traveled around the corner from our house to Green Bay Nursery to buy some badly-needed mulch.  We had last put mulch into our front garden two years ago when we had decided to sell this house.  We bought a cheap mulch to dress up the garden a bit for the sale, and then we backed out of selling the house.  Instead, we remodeled the den into a laundry/ weaving room.  The cheap mulch worked fine for that year.

New mulch surrounds the just-starting-to bloom
giant hostas and the daylily plants in front of the
front porch.

Last year, we were busy remodeling the back porch, so we neglected the front gardens once again.  This year, we had to do something.  We could have driven a few miles out of town to get mulch at a different nursery.  Their price was $10.00 less expensive for a cubic yard of mulch, but by the time we spent the time and the gasoline to get there and back, we decided that going around the corner for mulch was worth the extra $10.00.

We ended up putting in three yards of mulch.  Thankfully, Rick purchased a mulching fork.  It resembles a pitch fork, but it has 10 tines that made scooping up the mulch much easier than trying to move it with a regular shovel.  This will not be the last time we have to purchase and to spread mulch into the garden, so we will get use out of the fork in the future.

We spent the morning picking up the mulch in our truck, forking it out into the garden, and spreading it around all of the plants.  The gardens are just beginning to bloom and to grow, so now was a good time to get it ready for the summer.  Rain is predicted tonight and tomorrow, so that was another good reason to get this job completed today.

The gardens span two-thirds of the front yard, so we were happy
to get them filled with new mulch.

We especially needed mulch in the southern part of the garden
that slopes down the yard under the Japanese Lilac Tree.

The grass in the front yard is starting to get a bit shaggy, but that will have to wait until the dry weather again on this coming Friday.  Until then, we both feel we are nearly finished with the outdoor work.  I would like to plant a new lilac bush in the back yard, but that, too, will wait for warmer weather and another day.  Now we hope we can sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labors.