The Last of The Tulips

 
Journal Entry No. 1
The Last of the Tulips, The Waterfall, and Planning for the Future

Time marches on in the garden this spring. I had to say goodbye to the blooms on the cherry tree, my peach dropped rather early, and my spring bulbs have nearly run their course. The wild tulips are wilting today, which always makes me a little sad. The parrots have alternated between shades of cream and rose to electric orange, magenta, and back to soft pink again. My black tulips have grown magnificently this year after last year's poor, drooping crop. They stand tall and proud and dance on the gentle breeze that brings cool spring temperatures back to the region.

For the past several days I've been waking up early, sneaking out into the morning dew and drinking a steaming cup of hot chocolate while ruminating about the week's tasks. I'm equally as busy inside my house as I am in the backyard and I've been struggling to accommodate all the work that needs to be done.

Two days ago I finally got the courage to tackle the waterfall. This is a sore point which I'll probably discuss often. When we moved here we discovered a very large and very expensive waterfall feature in the eastern corner of the yard. It was entombed in two feet of ivy and had trees and various other weeds growing out of it. Miraculously the two pumps inside the reservoir survived. The waterfall did not. It took us a week or so, with help from family, to clear out the debris. When we ran the pumps for the first time we determined that there were several leaks somewhere behind the decorative boulders and we were losing water at break-neck speed. I assumed the reservoir held water but for whatever reason decided to leave it, this resulted in my having to drain it repeatedly after every rainfall to prevent nasties and algae from flourishing. I did this for the first two years.

I wanted desperately to fix the waterfall this spring but we've been behind schedule on a number of reno projects. I decided to take my parents' advice and install a cheap fountain into the deepest part of the reservoir to oxygenate the water and hopefully in turn reduce the local mosquito population. Unfortunately, the grueling task of clearing smelly leaf debris might have been in vain as I have been measuring the reservoir and the water level is continuously shrinking, which means we have a new tear somewhere. 

I'm heartbroken. We know for a fact this waterfall cost the original owners something like $9000 (CAD) because they left all the paperwork behind (it was a complete dickhead who bought the house from them and let it go to hell, and then we got to inherit his mess). I might be able to afford to repair it, depending on the problem, but we'd have to get a forklift in and a team of professionals to do it, which is hard given there's barely any space to do so.

I'm going to contact the business that created the waterfall to see if they're still operating and maybe get them to come in the fall when all of my plants are dormant. If we can't fix it I'll have no choice but to fill it and make it a succulent garden. It makes me sad because with the fountain pump in there it has a lovely trickling sound again, I've missed it terribly. While living with my parents I learned the value of a water feature, it soothes your nerves and drowns out all of the obnoxious sound pollution from neighboring yards. 

Speaking of which, I've been meaning to install a fountain on the north west side of my yard. I have my affectionately coined "courtyard" garden at the side of my house which now functions as my memorial garden for my late cat, Baba. It's situated next to our very noisy air conditioning unit. I recently purchased a small concrete fountain with the sole intention of installing it in this part of the garden. I bought the fountain pump, set to work immediately and it was disastrous! The reservoir was so small I barely fit the pump in, and even when installed the waterline only just covered it so any evaporation would surely lead to the pump running dry. But beyond that, the pump was louder than the water trickle! So I'll have to get creative and build my own DIY water feature. I've been itching to make some garden art and hopefully in the coming weeks I might finally afford some time to do so.

Until then, I have my forget-me-nots, now in the height of their blooming period. My phlox has just begun to grace the garden with its delicate blue flowers that simply glow in the morning light. And soon the columbine will reveal it's long crown like clusters. First pink, then blue. You can see here a photo of the tulip bed and part of my memorial garden for my other cat, Nori. Yes there's a pair of lips and a nose in the bottom corner! I'm trying to protect what I think might be bluebells coming up.

There will be more flowers and thoughts to discuss in the coming weeks.

Until next time, happy gardening!