February frustrations

We've been pretty euphoric about our mild winter, but I'm noticing some frustration to go along with it. The comparatively nice weather is fooling us into trying to do things that should not and cannot be done.

Yesterday's outside rounds provided a perfect example.

Over the past few weeks, I've attempted to create some blueberry bush starts. They're leafing out in their inside container, so I know they're still alive. I have great hopes of multiplying my blueberry patch, and if these don't work, I'll buy some starts later.

For the past few years while mowing the portion of the lawn where the blueberries grow, I've decided that it's better to have shrubs in a straight row with no open spots between. Those open spots grow grass, and they're not wide enough for my riding lawnmowers to trim that grass. That means hauling the weed eater out there several times each summer.

With no open spots, I've surmised there will be that much less grass to trim, and with new shrubs filling those open spots, the yard will look nicer and I'll have more blueberries.

The day before yesterday I decided to start scraping the sod from the open spots in preparation for hauling in soil for the new plants. A few chippings with the shovel told me that was not a good idea, just yet. Much of the ground is still frozen, and I'll probably do more damage to myself pounding and pushing away at that shovel than I will the area, needing to be cleared of sod.

So, I left the shovel next to the blueberry bushes for a warmer day.

I moved on to some areas in my west gardens where lots of dead grass is adding to the colorless scene. Why not burn that, I thought.

Six matchbooks later, I've decided the dead grass has not yet dried enough for my spring scorched-earth activities. My friend Mary Snedden told me about the year we had such a dry winter that her hubby burned the weeds and grass from the entire perimeter of their place as a Valentine's gift for her.

I guess I'll wait until Feb. 14 before bringing out the matches again.

The garden beds look ugly with all the leaves that dropped after my fall leaf-raking marathon. So, I got out the rake and began trying to remove them. Many of those leaves are still frozen into place, so the rake went to work on another project: dog doodoos

You know what I've noticed about this winter over the last two? The dogs have had many more choices on where to drop their deposits. They could actually go outside the lawn area into the woods, so there aren't nearly as many logs to rake up. This year, however, the deposits don't disintegrate into large lakes of standing water left by melting snow.

We don't have a lot of standing water. Instead, we have big masses of ice, so with each stroke of the rake, the doggie doos simply move from one spot to the next. Consequently, I've been picking them up with the barn picker and throwing them over the fence into the pasture.

I also thought yesterday about hauling some barn dirt to the one area where I'd chipped away for a new blueberry plant. So, I went to the west side of the barn and looked at the pile of three-year-old horse manure. Unfortunately, that's the one place where standing water stands ubiquitously, like a moat protecting the big dirt pile.

Guess I can't do that yet, I thought.

I spent a lot of time yesterday wandering around, looking for yard projects I could do in this unusual springlike weather. I finally decided to pay attention to the calendar. Generally, we don't do that stuff until March or April, and this year I've definitely let Mother Nature fool me.

So, I'll stick to my indoor gardening and let the earth warm up a bit. At least, inside the house, tomatoes are popping up, along with pansies, petunias and lettuce. For now, that gives me some excitement and plenty of young plants to nurture inside while I wait for outside to get to the point where it needs to be for full-fledged yard and garden work.