Gardening

Spring seems to finally be here. At least, temperatures have been above freezing for about a week, and should stay there for at least another week. Woohoo!

Last weekend we went to the library and got more easy Dutch novels, but I also started reading a "normal" novel in Dutch and have been able to make good progress. We had our speaking midterm a few days ago, and I didn't do very well. No one else did either, really. The teacher attributed that problem to the short amount of time we have at A level Dutch ... we learned the rules, but didn't really have time to get comfortable with applying them. She suggested speaking Dutch at home, and doing volunteer work. I already had an appointment scheduled for the 14th, so that works out well :-P I'm also speaking Dutch at home now (when I remember to and can sufficiently express myself), but Jan has been banned from speaking Dutch since he tends to use a lot of words I don't know yet, and it's too annoying and frustrating. Anyhow, I can understand Dutch sentences pretty well, but just need to get more comfortable using the correct word order. I'm learning enough new vocab as it is :-P

We have the writing midterm on Tuesday, and I think I'll do much better on that.

Jan's parents came to visit yesterday (and get computer help), and helped out a lot in the garden as well. Jan and his dad fixed the wiring in the shed, and took out most of the lights. Apparently it was set up to be a marijuana grow operation at some point, hence 10 lights in a small shed :-P Plus a timer for the electricity! Now we just have two lights, one right by the door and one at the opposite end ... plenty for good illumination.

Jan's mom and I worked in the garden. I got caught up on the weeding and removed some of the bricks from the yard. Basically it had a big patio area and a wide path to the shed and gate, despite being a fairly small yard. And half of the non-bricked area was filled in with little white rocks :-P Basically there were bricks in the most useful spots for growing plants, and dirt where there's partial to full shade from the shade. Brilliant :-P So now the patio is being trimmed around the edges, as well as the path, and the white rocks have been removed to a fully shaded corner around the base of the tree. Jan and I did more garden work today, pulling out more bricks and laying down some fresh soil to fill in the empty bits.

Next week we'll probably get plants. I suck at garden design, so I'm going with a practical use of the space, centered on food bearing plants that are also attractive. Then I'll fill in the spaces around those with decorative plants, tentatively aiming for a cottage garden look. I'm thinking about getting 2-3 highbush blueberries for along the north fence (lots of sun exposure), one or two small squash varieties to grow on trellises, a rosemary bush, and strawberries, brussel sprouts, garlic, and rhubarb. All things we like to eat which should do well here. And I'm pretty sure we'll have good spots for all of it :-)

No more trees since we have so little space and they create a lot of shade. But the blueberry bushes should be tall enough to break the monotony of the fence. Oh, and the house came with a nice little plum tree in the front of the house :-)

Right now there's just remnants of prior owners growing: the big purple hibiscus tree by the shed, and small clumps of tulips, crocuses, and something else that hasn't bloomed yet - probably mini daffodils.