Flowers, Flowers, and More Flowers

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!

Wonderful!

The rock to mulch conversion is complete at the historic cemetery! I lost count at 80 bags of mulch. I think it was in the high 80s.

What began as my (crazy, maybe 😂) brain child soon became an incredible team experience, and there is still more to be done – filling in with transplants and donations – but the rock to mulch conversion is done, and now we can play a bit. And maintain.

The neighbors, to a person, say it is so nice, a huge enhancement, and very enjoyable to walk by. Very rewarding to hear!

I hope you enjoy the view too!

And that is only one side, the shortest side at that! But first, a view of the resident turkeys

And now, the gates and the other side.

Almost there!

Still some more weeding and then fall trimming to be done, but the initial bedrock of mulch is laid, and now we can play.

I hear some more sun loving plants donations are on the way, and also ground plaques for every soldier.

What a treat to work at this site, along with so many others before and during, and Lord willing, to come!

Seedlings, hosta haircuts, the historic garden, and more daylilies bloom

The seedling planter is off the patio. It will soon go back into the garage until next spring. The seedlings are looking more and more like daylilies and are in pots in the “pepper garden” area, with the lavender. Oh yes, and a stray sunflower. Doggone bird seed! 🙂

They will stay there until fall and then find their new home. Their new home will probably not be the seedling garden from last year, as that does not get as much sun as it seems they may need. Hubs got a bigger grill that casts a larger shadow, and I need that area for hostas that are burning – with the tree gone in front and the clematis removed in back. Change, change.

The hostas are also getting love this weekend. I have made the decision not to harvest any hosta seed pods this year, so the ones that are done blooming got a haircut. Here’s an example.

The bees so love the blooms, so I left the few that were still in that category. But soon.

Trimming the hosta scapes as they go to seed will help them preserve energy for the plant. Not sure that is needed – hahaha – as they are getting huge, but just in case. And I may divide a few, if energy allows. We shall see.

The second side of the historic cemetery fence garden also got lots of love this weekend – 32 bags of mulch. Lots of love from way more than me – WAY more!

Removing rock, pulling plastic, laying landscape fabric, sourcing mulch, which is rapidly disappearing. Incredible effort!!! It looks SOOOOO good!!! This picture doesn’t even do it justice. It just goes on and on and on down the hilly slope.

7 more bags of mulch are in storage – in the back of my husband’s truck, which he wants back haha – to go on that side, and then quits for the season there. Mulch is getting harder and harder to find, and $5/bag is not my jam. Hopefully, fingers crossed, the 7 bags will do it.

Next up for the cemetery garden is iris transplanting. But talk is not do, so I will wait to share on that til I have pics of the completed pieces.

I will wrap up with more daylily love. Yesterday the Purple D’Oro had 7 (!) blooms.

Today 3

Today South Seas is also blooming.

Yesterday morning also brought early morning bloom pretties Tirzah and South Seas.

And Just Plum Happy was, well, Just Plum Happy!

A remembrance day

In the U.S. we are celebrating Memorial Day – a day to remember those who have fallen in service to our country. At the historic cemetery is a grave for a soldier who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the U.S. Civil War.

Being married to a historian, I know that there were many causes for that awful war. War is always awful.

I took time this morning to walk the historic cemetery. It is good and right to take time to contemplate our learned lessons, and reflect on the incredible price so many have paid for our benefit.