It is a rainy, chill out sort of 4th of July (American Independence Day) here. Here’s some red, white, and “blue” from our garden.
And a hint of which daylily looks like it is right on the verge of being the first to bloom in the garden this year. It will also be the first time it has bloomed in our garden. Full disclosure, I did not mark it, so until it blooms I will not be able to say for sure, but I believe it is Delicate Design.
We are having an exceptionally rainy Spring this year, which, alternating with some recent heat spells is causing us to play hopscotch with our time in the gardens. Think mosquitos also added to rain and heat impediments. Short bursts of catch-it-while-you-can time has been the norm. But the Asian lilies are keeping it pretty, whether inside or out.
A fantastic 24 hours indeed!
Tuesday I had volunteer time through work to start using up, so I scheduled 2 hours at the start of the day. Hey, calendars determine part of these decisions 😉 Tuesday was predicted sunny a few days before, but it dawned with rain. By 7:30 am it was to a drizzle and I could not stand the wait any longer. I needed my historic cemetery fence gardening fix. Off I went. And as blessings would have it, the drizzle fizzled by the time I pulled up to the cemetery, and stopped within a minute of getting out of the car and starting to work.
This was the first project of the day I wanted to complete – a removable border to keep the mulch in on the new iris bed.
It has to be removable come late fall because the snow plow/blower will suck up even pavers set on end.
Now maybe the perfectionist in some will say, “Why not right on the edge?” Well, at first I had the mulch mounded, and it was going over the top of the border if I placed it right at the edge. But as projects go, I just had to see if I could make it work right on the edge. I smoothed out the mulch, repositioned the border, and called my friend the site manager, who said “Hello crazy lady!” Hahaha! I asked her if she and her husband were coming over because pics weren’t sending and I needed a second set of eyes. You know what she said? “No, because it’s raining.” Now, first of all, in case you think that was not nice, she is my friend, so she was just having fun, but I tell you, the drive is short from our part of town, and it was not even drizzling at the cemetery when I called her. So I was being blessed for sure!!! Here is the pic I was trying to send her.
I made the decision, I liked the border farther back for now. Maybe I will plant ground cover in front. You just never know what I might do in a garden when I set my mind a-going. I might plant more irises in that bed and move the border forward yet this year even. You just never know with me 🙂
So I got done with the border, poured in my last bag of mulch to chock-a-block full top it off, micro-weeded the right side of the garden, took a few more quick pics, and went back home, to my office, and logged in, 7 minutes late. No worries. It was all good. Work knows what a crazy lady I am too, and that they will see me work way more than 7 minutes late cuz, well, you know, I am one of those weird people that like what I do for a paycheck. We are out there, right? 😉
At the end of my work day the dog got extra lovins because I was going to leave him yet again, but only for an hour or so, to go to the historical society meeting at a historic factory turned hotel, condos, pub, and event venue. So fun!!!
Here are pics of the setting. It was an absolutely beautiful night! No rain there!
Still, I couldn’t stop there. I had spotted the first daylily of my gardening season in bloom at the cemetery in the morning. But my phone was in the glove box, all the way at the other end of the fence garden, and you know, I was running late dadeedadeeda …
So I had to, I just had to, get a pic of that first daylily blooming. Yes, it is the overused Stella D’Oro, but … it is the first daylily of the year in the gardens I love and work in.
I returned home a very happy crazy lady! And our dog celebrated with the zoomies.
This morning, I was treated to a fully opened peach Asian lily and the first opened hosta blooms.
I tell ya, it was a wunderbar 24 hours!
And I think the baby bunny must have had fun too.
Dang it! Now I have to start using that cordial glass again!
We are having a gentle early morning rain here, and the first Asian lily bloom is just fine with that.
Very soon the Asian lilies will begin their show.
So very ready!
The weigelia and the first blooming ninebark are wrapping up, and that has left the forget-me-nots and the first (almost) blooming hosta to carry the show.
Back from some PTO from work, it it time to catch up.
First, very exciting, I have 11 intentional daylily crosses growing into plants. Crosses that made seed, stratified, sprouted, and are now looking like baby daylilies (because they are lol). Blooms are a few years out, but that is very exciting.
Up north, some grapevine hyacinth that were from a watch ‘em grow garden (forced) a few years ago are blooming away. Very encouraging that the deer are not eating them. I had hoped they would escape being munchies.
Yes, hidden in the woodland foliage, but that is fine for now. I am adding to that area. I just planted some forced daffodils, and they, too, should be deer resistant when they come up next and subsequent years.
At the townhouse, the bluebells clematis wrapped up a couple weeks ago.
They now have their puffs
The tulips, of course, are done blooming. We only had a few this year.
At the historic cemetery the daffodils did well year one.
And the transplanted irises did very well and are continuing to bloom.
Right now at the townhouse the wiegelia is in full bloom.
The first hosta scape is about to bloom.
And the forget-me-nots are starting to bloom.
Lastly, one of the ninebarks is also blooming.
At the historic cemetery, the transplanted daylily won the race to show the first scapes and buds.
More transplanting there to be done this year, for sure – daylilies and irises. The iris bed is coming along nicely. A lot more work to be done there, but little by little. Today it was a bit of border, to keep the mulch from washing out. One more box of 12 sections and that should do it. And then clean up what is on the sidewalk. But more on that later.
Besides the daylilies being done for the year and the linden starting to look very fall-ish, and the sedum making me smile, I feel like yet more changes are a-coming.
Sometimes children – grown and tiny bring you along on their journey. So it is that, besides the cabin build-out up north, an enormous gardening opportunity has presented itself, one that, frankly, is even more than I would tackle alone. But the beauty is that it is not mine.
I find myself astonished that I am looking forward to NOT being the owner. What is going on?
And who was it that looked at me oh those many years ago and said, “Don’t let those daylily seeds go to waste! You know you can save them and plant them!” Yes, indeed. In addition to some going up north and maybe some to the historic garden, I think they may look beautiful in your new gardens 🥰
It appears the the hot pepper by the transplanted coneflower has become less efficient in repelling bunnies. Their fair share 😉
And at the historic cemetery it seems that the wild turkeys may think some of the transplanted irises are theirs. Or some sort of wild turkeys at least 😂
Daffodils should solve that 🙂
The old seedling bed is no more.
I have tucked the last of those seedlings into a more sunny area
and made room for hostas to go into that more shady area.
The last hosta cutting (which was an accidental pulling) is also planted in another shaded area. (I have pulled out some non-productive clematis.)
Now any more transplanting I get done in the townhome gardens this fall is bonus.
Susan's Daily Garden 