Thimbleanna » Mulch Gulch

Mulch Gulch

May 22, 2009 on 11:47 pm | In Around the House | 38 Comments

Well, there’s just not much Thimble in Thimbleanna these days. It’s so, so sad. It’s always hard in the spring and fall anyway, because of the extra yard work. Add a graduation, two kid moves this month, and the every-other-year mulching and it’s just hopeless.

The big truck rolled in this morning and dumped the mulch in the driveway. See all that smoke? That wasn’t dust — the mulch was steaming HOT. (??? Did they cook it before they arrived?) Mr. DumpTruckMan managed to dump some of the mulch right on top of a few of my coneflowers so I was scurrying to rescue them before they were fried.

Can you see the pretty green of the trees peeking into the picture? After a cool, wet spring, our spring colors are brilliant and gorgeous this year. Aren’t the green and chocolate brown pretty together? I’d love a quilt or some socks out of those colors. And throw in some robin’s egg blue — yum, yum!

Well, now you know how I’ll be spending my weekend. I’m hoping we’ll be done by Sunday night so I can at least have a free (ha!) day on Monday before returning to work on Tuesday. Wish us luck!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

P.S. Talking about those pretty chocolate and green colors reminded me that I forgot to show you the cool sock yarn that I picked up at Cami’s when we went to TheSecondChild’s graduation a few weeks ago. They are Lorna’s Laces custom colors. I vowed I’d stop buying Lorna’s Laces because of the problems I’ve had with pooling, but I couldn’t help myself with these pretty yarns (this picture doesn’t do them justice.) When I left the store, Cami had lots more of this yarn and I’m sure she’d be happy to ship to you, so if you’re feeling the need for some pretty chocolate + pink or blue, ring her up! (Hey, she’s not paying me to say this — I just don’t know where else you can get this yarn. ;-) )

38 Comments

We mulched today too. ;o) ooxx`jodi

Comment by Jodi — May 23, 2009 #
I hope it goes well for you and that you get a bit of sewing in when you’re done. I’m not very good at gardening so, we’re lacking color outside but I have lots of flowers and color happening in my sewing room. Does that count? lol!

Comment by Kimberly — May 23, 2009 #
Happy mulching – I hope the weather is lovely for the task! If I was closer I’d come along and give you a hand. As you know from my recent post, I love playing in the muck!

Comment by Di — May 23, 2009 #
You’re mulching—well I am/was removing horrible wallpaper and painting at the house we are trying to sell. 2 years it’s been on the market…and we are a bit desperate to do anything to get it to sell. SO I completely understand as there is no ‘thimblin’ here either

Comment by Vickie E — May 23, 2009 #
OMG you have your work cut out for you! We mulched last spring…just have to do a little touch up this year. Hope you get some time to sew!

Comment by Carol — May 23, 2009 #
go for it………lots of hard working moving it all around the garden now……….

Comment by Chookyblue — May 23, 2009 #
Hi Anna,
How much mulch is that??
How big is your garden????
a) like the municipal garden in Hanau.
b) like the botanical garden in Frankfurt
c) like the central park in New York.
Don´t work to hard and enjoy your weekend
Janine

Comment by Janine — May 23, 2009 #
Oh no, not your coneflowers. I haven’t been sewing on my quilts because of yard and garden work and I’m almost finished. Love the yarn colors.

Comment by Judy — May 23, 2009 #
Your garden is going to love you for the mulch, maybe not your elbows and back so much. All the smoke is a science thing….decomposing or something. As long as it keeps the weeds down and looks so good..right.
That yarn is going to make some good looking socks.

Comment by Carrie — May 23, 2009 #
We are doing mulch every other year too. This is our off year, thank God! Usually we need 50 yards, YIKES! That basically equates to a lot of hauling with the wheelbarrow. I have to say, I don’t envy you right now. But I can picture you running to save your coneflowers, I would have done the same thing. What we girls do to keep things pretty.

Comment by Jackie — May 23, 2009 #
since my garden is now in pots on my deck, i’m thinking i don’t have to mulch this year!!
LOVE the yarn.
love it.
did i tell you i love it?
don’t work too hard, we’re all terribly worried about you – manual labor is for boys. you should be sitting on the porch, drinking lemonade and fanning yourself, while knitting socks!
i’m heading off to farmer’s market!
have a fun weekend.
:waves madly

Comment by brigita — May 23, 2009 #
I am so into green at the minute – it’s just sooo fresh. Enjoy your mulching

Comment by periwinkle — May 23, 2009 #
I’ve heard that Lorna’s Laces don’t have much stretch, either. I’m working with the ShiBui and I’m not sure I like the lack of stretch. Okay, it’s not like I have tons of experience with sock yarn. Maybe I should knit some more before I make a final decision. My first real socks were with Smooshy, which has tons of stretch.

Comment by MichelleB — May 23, 2009 #
So I guess you could say you will be spread a little thin this weekend, huh??? HA!! I crack myself up!! We are doing the same thing here. Not much fun but the results are wonderful!

Comment by Donna Coulter — May 23, 2009 #
Woweeeee! What a lot of mulch! That would completely cover my whole garden I reckon! Good luck with spreading it – hope you don’t get too exhausted!

Lucy x

Comment by Lucy Locket-Pocket — May 23, 2009 #
The mulch is steaming because it has been composting in a huge pile at the landscape supply yard. Billions and billions of lovely, friendly bacterium, et al, to help enrich your soil. And provide a steam facial while you spread it! ;o)

Hope your weekend is going well . . . I would love to have my work cut out for me. I’m still trying to find the pattern . . .

Comment by Annalea — May 23, 2009 #
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that much mulch – it would bury my little garden a foot deep!

Comment by dottycookie — May 23, 2009 #
Have fun with your mulch. I went to the farmer’s market this morning and now I’m making bing cherry ice cream..or at least the cherries are doing their thing, the ice cream will come tomorrow. Wish I could come help you…ok maybe not.

Comment by Judy — May 23, 2009 #
A steaming pile in your yard is never a good thing, is it? I hope all that mulch makes your yard look fabulous. Some how we missed the mulch truck this year. I can’t say I feel bad about it. LOL!

Take care,
Cassie

Comment by Cassie — May 23, 2009 #
Anna, I hope you show us some garden pics! I’m sorry to hear about your yarn troubles. I’ve just completed my first pair of socks but the yarn wasn’t varigated. My next pair will be, I’ll have to see what happens!
Karen

Comment by Karen — May 23, 2009 #
Wow, so mulch comes hot, does it? I really don’t know much about it! It doesn’t sound fun, though!

Your sock yarn looks fun! Love the colors and I look forward to seeing what you knit up with it! When you’re done mulching, that is! :)

Comment by tattingchic — May 23, 2009 #
Hi Anna, I was reading your last post about the pooling issue with the yarn. I had this issue with a colinette yarn and someone somewhere on the internet suggested using two balls. But they said to work two rows from one ball then the next two from the other and so on, so you’re always working with yarn from two balls rather than one. But you’re still only using one strand at a time. Am I making any sense?!!!

Comment by sarah — May 24, 2009 #
Hi Anna! Well, it looks like you have lots of work to do (I hope, by now, you’re finished and are able to relax a bit…). But indeed a beautiful colour combination…who knew that a picture showing mulch inspires you to make a quilt someday? So everything has its good side ;o). Hoope your coneflowers will survive the attack of the mulch.
Have a good start into the new week,
Julia

Comment by Julia — May 24, 2009 #
Oh, how your plants will thank you for all that mulch. It looks beautiful!

Comment by Elaine/MuddlingThrough — May 24, 2009 #
OMG that is one big truck of mulch. Am I going to need one of those???

Comment by Sharon — May 24, 2009 #
Goodness me! I’m amazed! Your garden must grow amazingly with all that on it. I just have a couple of compost heaps and some bags of leaf mould and spread this around a bit in March and it seems to work. I don’t have nearly enough bare earth to spread much around at this time of year. Even though our coneflowers aren’t nearly flowering yet.

Do you put it on to conserve the moisture? We kind of don’t need to do that much…

And yes, why don’t we see some pictures of this much-mulched garden?

Comment by Isabelle — May 24, 2009 #
Mmmmmm. I love the smell of fresh baked mulch in the morning. We mulched last year, so it appears we mulch in alternating years. I guess this makes you the odd mulcher. I’ve been weeding all weekend and attempting at making last year’s mulch look new again. And never thought I’d use mulch so many time in one paragraph.

And hey… get that in your garden. Fast. We’ve got a road to Germany to do!

Comment by happy zombie — May 24, 2009 #
Oh my..that’s a lot of wheelbarrels of mulch you have to move. Oh my aching back!

Comment by Teresa — May 24, 2009 #
Ooh, that yarn looks so nice! Yum. I love Lorna’s yarn. I have a bunch of it, but don’t know how to knit socks yet. Some day.

Comment by Stacy — May 24, 2009 #
i love that you find inspiration all around you, anna. that is the sign of a true artist, IMO. :)

and that sock yarn? cami’s is the -only- place you can get it. it’s special made just for her! seems each skein sort of does it’s own dance. hope you enjoy yours.

Comment by melly — May 24, 2009 #
I was thinking I need to buy some mulch, too, but you’ve really got me beat! I just need a couple of bags…

Naughty you, enabling us yarn-stashers like that–I love that blue/brown combo!

Comment by Aim — May 25, 2009 #
Hope you managed to finish your gardening work
so you have a day “off” for the fun things in life that really matters!

Comment by May Kristin — May 25, 2009 #
I also love the bright green growth on our trees – GROWTH being the best thing. Want a fence for privacy but don’t want to re-mortgage the house! Mike cut down a crab-apple tree yesterday – I was very vocal that I didn’t agree, but it’s down now. At least there’s a new flower bed going in there – a cast-off from Cami’s front yard – a 5′ x 3.5′ wood sort of wine-rack looking thing. Think I’m planting with purple and yellow theme. It has 20 spaces and I already have 4 new lavender plants. The rest will be what looks good at the many garden shops we frequent. Any plant suggestions? I think I might paint it a sage green color, can’t decide.
We “bag-mulch” as my husband has a gimpy wife now and that way we can do a little at a time.
I was thinking yesterday that I would rather be inside knitting or weaving, and today it is raining so I have my wish. Healing wishes for your back…
Take care, Always, Robin

Comment by Robin Brown — May 25, 2009 #
hmm, so did you find out why they baked the mulch before they delivered it? That’s just weird!

Comment by Penny — May 25, 2009 #
Seriously. I can’t believe that huge truckload and you ran out! We cut down trees and made room for more mature stuff, sprayed weeds, blah blah blah. Too much to do with 1 1/2 acres. I mostly supervise though so I shouldn’t complain. I am sure you get your hands good and dirty.

Comment by Nanette — May 27, 2009 #
Oh gosh, that is a lot of mulch! I do have soil and compost delivered sometimes. What a lot of work that is, to spread it all, but it’s good exercise. So, I imagine your muscles are still a bit sore today?

Your yarn is very pretty!

Comment by Lena — May 28, 2009 #
oh mylanta! that’s a LOT of mulch!!!! i love the sock yarn. it’s so pretty! and know what else??? i’m almost done knitting my first sock! i finally took a class and all i have to do now is close up the toe. i’m simply giddy about it.

Comment by amandajean — June 2, 2009 #
Ooh! I have mulch envy! And that steam lets you know it’s good ;) Excellent – your plants will so love you for all that goodness.

Comment by finnyknits — June 4, 2009 #