Some new photos of the garden. It's been hot for the last few days, and things are moving a bit fast. The baptisia and garlic chives are in full bloom, as well as the iris. The peonies are about ready to open, and my one poppy blossom has opened.

Yesterday evening, Rob and Emma and I finished mulching the birch bed. We had to take the rocks that form the path out first, and these horrible, tiny, biting ants always form colonies under the rocks. So we also used some pesticide to kill the ant colonies. Then we used about 7 or 8 wheelbarrow-fulls of mulch. Emma was a lot of help --even using the pitchfork to fill the wheelbarrow and wheel it to the garden several times on her own. It looks great especially from the upstairs window in the guest room.

Today Rob spent time working on the raised beds he's making on the west side of the house for tomatoes and strawberries. It'll be really nice to have the tomatoes close to a water source.

The yellow iris have started blooming, and look very nice with the purple ones. The orange iris should be blooming soon as well. The garlic chives around the birdbath are also blooming. Most everything else is still just a lot of green.

It's supposed to get rather warm this weekend --I wish it wouldn't because it rushes everything.

Mother's Day :-)

Above are pictures of us and the yard, clearing brush.

Yesterday we (Rob, Emma and I) cleared brush for five hours. Rob had the chainsaw, and Emma and I dragged branches out of his way. After that we all piled the branches into the tractor wagon and got them to the burn pile. At one point the burn pile was over 10 feet high. We now have a big pile of ashes, and a couple of areas that are under control again. We had several other areas we wanted to attack but we underestimated how big a job it was :-)

Well, we were dry and very windy for a week (we actually had a fire alert --in the county we're allowed to burn brush, and they said no fires until the wind had died down because everything was so dry --just 10% relative humidity). Last night we had some storms come through and give us about 1/2 inch of rain; it also has brought much colder temperatures. It was only in the 40's today and very wet. Tomorrow won't be much better.

We got 10 yards of mulch delivered today, and I'm hoping tomorrow will be cool but drier so that I can start loading up the wheel barrow and trucking it around to the gardens. It's a LOT of mulch :-)

Last night we had a storm that dumped a lot of rain, which we needed. Yesterday we also got the mower started and mowed for the first time. So, this morning the gardens looked really beautiful from the second floor windows with the grass neat and green and the mulch all dark brown and wet.

We have lost one of the birch trees, however, and it's going to have to come down. The top of the second one doesn't look great, so I'm wondering if that one will also go in a year or so. Those trees were from the Arbor Day Foundation, and they don't send out the more expensive, resistant varieties of trees. I was thinking that perhaps we could replace the one that's already dead with a River Birch. I had thought about putting in an ornamental crab apple or plum, but I like having birch trees there because they give filtered sunlight.

Yesterday I had three Liatris delivered --bare root-- and got them in the ground today. I really don't like getting bare-root plants, as I've had some very bad luck with them actually growing. We'll see if these make it.

I was going to mow today --the grass and dandelions are really getting out of hand, but the mower wouldn't start. It's battery needs a little push, I think. Rob is going to see if he can pick up a battery charger tomorrow, since this seems to happen each spring.

The garlic mustard is getting out of hand too. Emma and I pulled a big patch of it a few days ago, but I need to get some Round-up on that patch, because I'm sure we missed some roots (it was hard to get to, in the woods) and even the tiniest bit will grow back again, flower, and leave 500 seeds in its wake. Most of our property we can't protect, but the woods near the garden we try to keep clear, so that we don't have to fight it in the garden itself.

Life has been a bit busy for enjoying the gardens the last week or so. I bought some basil and a few annuals about a week ago, but they're still sitting in their box on the porch because there hasn't been time to do anything with them. The tulips are done, which is the end of the spring bulbs; the bleeding heart and grape hyacinth are beautiful right now. Usually the next thing to bloom is the iris, but not till the middle of May. The Korean Spice Bush by the office window has it's three heavenly-smelling blossoms, but the Service Berry tree didn't bloom much this year.

We had some days in the high 70's last week, but today (and tomorrow) are in the upper 50's, so it's been back to spring. It was windy today, but still nice. Rob used the weedwacker and chainsaw for the first times, and burned another big brush pile. Emma and Kirsten played outside all day, while Erin and I worked on our courses.

Emma and I put some towels out over the hostas since it's supposed to frost tonight. I hope the bleeding hearts will be okay.