Mowed again today, since it's supposed to rain tonight . . . and tomorrow . . . and Wednesday.  Still, things are pretty dry for spring, so it will be good to get some rain.  The garden is looking so pretty --by the birch trees it's mostly green but it still looks great.  Two rose blossoms opened to day, they smell wonderful.  The baptisia is just beginning to color up, although it's not a very bright blue, and the garlic chives are really bushy and flowery.  The purple iris have been blooming for a few days, and now the yellow and orange ones are starting to open.  I've staked the tallest ones, hoping the rain will leave most of them standing up.  I also staked the delphinium that has the most flower stalks, by using two bamboo stakes and wrapping it with twine.  

It's a nice cool day today (I had to wear my jacket while mowing), and Rob and Emma have removed a lot of things from the garage in order to clean it.  The deadline is the rain tonight :-)

The last days of May

The garlic chives are blooming, the purple iris is looking gorgeous, and the columbine has lots and lots of flowers.  I hope that the humming birds are visiting.  I've been watering and fertilizing --it's been a week or so since we had any rain, and the new trees really need water.  The cardinal flower seeds have germinated, so by August we should have some flowers from those.

The gnats are still horrible.  And I really should mow the grass again.  Maybe I'll do that on Monday.

The purple iris started blooming by the propane tank a couple of days ago.  Most of the spring flowers are going, with only the bleeding hearts hanging on.  I've managed to keep the rabbit damage to a bare minimum.  I got an email telling me my tomatoes have shipped, and hopefully to the two trees will ship soon too.

The gnats are awful so far --it's always one bug or another :-)

Blue Spruce

Yesterday, on Mother's Day, we bought two cute little blue spruce trees, and planted them at the end of the driveway, one on each side.  They're just 2' high right now, but they still look nice, and I think they'll make a nice entrance as they get bigger.  I think we're going to need to protect them from snowmobilers during the winter.

We also bought a little dwarf alberta spruce, which Emma named "silky" and planted it between the privacy fence and the swing bench.  It was a nice day to plant, because it was relatively cool.

The lilacs are blooming and smell wonderful.  So is the Korean spice viburnum.  With just three little flowers, you can smell them from a couple of feet away.

This morning, in nice comfortable cloudy conditions, I planted the three purple asters in front of the two goldenrod in the birch bed, and planted the new penstemon against the privacy fence, and the anemone at the base of the beautiful oriental lily near the rose bush.  

This afternoon, after school, Emma and I planted the cardinal vines in three places:  under the privacy fence, and at each of the green trellises leading to the garden.  I don't honestly know if they'll come up either place, but I figure it's worth a try.  I still have zinnia and cosmos seeds to plant, but I haven't figured out where I want to plant them yet.  

Yesterday I bought potting soil and annuals for the two containers by the mudroom door.  I didn't put any petunias in there this time, and I put a mix of colors in each.  I hope they do better this year than they did last.  I also stopped by Lisa's house to pick up two peonies she dug up for me, and while I was there she also dug some iris and some virginia bluebells.  The bluebells are just tiny starts, not blooming this year.  I've put them in the east bed near the new spiderwort.  Hopefully they'll spread there and I can transfer some to the woods eventually.  

I got the peonies planted on the west side of the house, not too close to the heat pump, and the iris I planted near the windmill, to see what they're like.  Last night it started to rain, and we've had a nice rain all morning --gentle, just right for watering all the transplants in.

We had a very hot day --80 degrees! --on Friday.  I had just gotten 4 plants in the mail, and got very hot planting them.  Three of them were goldenrod --one for the back bed, to see if it will work with the black walnut, and two for the birch bed.  I've also ordered some purple dome asters, to put at the base of the goldenrod in the birch bed.  The last plant is a spiderwort, and I decided to put that in the east bed.  I took out one area of iris and planted it there, nearest the door we don't use.  It will get morning sun, but not the hot afternoon sun, so the blooms may last a bit longer into the day.  

Rob and Emma spent the day planting trees at Nygren, and brought two home.  One is white oak, the other is hickory.  They've planted them --one along the dying white pine tree line, and one out close to the road.  

Rob has been buying bags of topsoil and peatmoss and we've been emptying them into the bed in the front created by the new wall, but it's taking a lot!  I don't know if we'll get anything planted in there this year, given how slowly it's filling.  

The Korean Spice viburnum is leafing out and has at least two flower buds --quite good for such a small shrub.  The wiegelia is also leafing out, and the serviceberry tree as well.  That looks like it has flower buds as well, although it's harder to tell.  The tulips I planted a few years back are beginning to decline --the flowers are smaller and the color is not as intense.  And I'm still waiting to see if the poppies develop buds.  The baptisma is coming along nicely, but I have to figure out how to get it to splay out less.

Yesterday it started raining, and a cool front came through --we're back in the high 40's with lots of rain, which is good for everything that got planted.