Outdoors!

Now that the 40 days and 40 nights has finally (temporarily? I hope not) come to an end, I spent several glorious hours playing in the mud yesterday. My friend Jackie culled her herd of Hostas and the grocery bag full of my share has been waiting patiently for me to have the time to attend to them. Mother's Day afternoon was it. I split the clump into 5 pieces and then set to work weeding the daffodil bed (picture yesterday) that in summer becomes a Hosta/Astilbe bed. The new babies were way ahead of what's there so I had to move carefully to avoid stepping on new shoots. I marked what I found, and then filled in gaps with newbies. Best thing? I discovered that DO, in fact, have room for a few more Astilbes! Woohoo! More edging, more mulch, and this bed is ready to take care of itself.

After that, I'll move on to the raised beds and get them ready for the veggie garden that will go in probably Memorial Day weekend. That's my usual technique, though I read, somewhere, that waiting a little bit decreases damage from cutworms since they are only in the larval chompy stage for a limited period of time. Plant late, and they're beyond chewing age by the time the corn comes up. So if I plant corn, I'll do it last.

I've started peppers, tomatoes, and lettuce. I'll direct sow beans (green and lima), carrots, cucumber, cantaloupes and pumpkins. Anything else? I'm not sure yet. I guess need a garden plan - nothing where it was last year, and compatible room mates are the order of the day. I've read rosemary for crucifers (broccoli, cabbage), nasturtiums for curcurbits (cucumbers, melons), marigolds for tomatoes, geraniums for peppers, onions for carrots. It'll look good, anyway!

Lowes had only apple trees yesterday :o( so I guess I'll head out to Survivor Greenhouse and see what he's got this year. I'm after at least one pear, a sweet cherry, and maybe an apricot.

But it seems, not today. Daniel just came downstairs feeling sick, so I'm not going anywhere. That's okay too. I'll work on Simon's quilt.