GARDENING DAY

Lovely weather today, the kind to entice a person out of doors, the kind that makes you smile and slip on gloves, and those rubber shoes that keep your feet from getting muddy. The DH was outside ahead of me, but I joined him soon enough.

There is now a new iris bed:


Not exactly impressive, but the soil is right--so thick with rocks and pebbles that spades and trowels bounce off it in disbelief. No worries that the iris will sink themselves in cushions of soil. The corn is a volunteer, sprouted from a stray cast off from the bird feeder. I'm hoping to get an ear or two of corn from it!

Schreiner's, the iris gardens I ordered from, has new tags for their rhizomes, a color photo instead of the just name, which is a wonderful thing. As I planted the rhizomes, I stapled each label to the front pages of the the latest catalog, so I can refresh my memory on the varieties.


I always think I'll remember, but it's a long time between now and the bloom season, and there's something delicious about knowing the flowers' names, being able to say, "Oh, look! The Edith Wolfords are in bloom, and so are the Beverly Sills, and the Batik!"

These are the varieties in the new bed, from farthest away in the photo to nearest:





As you may have noted, they had to substitute Fade to Black for the Swazi Princess I'd ordered. Princess seems to be a lot darker, nearly completely black, so I'm a little disappointed not to get it, but maybe next year they'll have it again.

Things are progressing all over the yard. I can't wait for there to be grass, but DH is doing just a great job on the rest:


This is the view from the front walk, just inside the gate. We've been sheltering the little Japanese maple with the umbrella, but we probably moved it at exactly the wrong time, just as scorching weather hit. Poor thing shriveled up like it had been hit with a blow torch. There are still some soft, pliable leaves, though, so we're hoping it will recover.


Those are castor bean plants in the pot. We'd gone to someone's house to pick up some pavers advertised on Craig's list, and the full-grown plants were out front, huge, with big, red flowers. I exclaimed over them, and the home owner told me what they were and gave me seeds. These three plants are just a couple of weeks old. Next to the pot: lavender, sword fern, and curry plant. There's a lovely pink rose in that bed, too, and a volunteer unidentified shrub, with shiny, dark green leaves, and clusters of black berries borne under them. I'd love to know what it is.

My DH planted the boxwood today. You can't tell, but there are two varieties, a dark leaf, and a lighter leaf. We plan to trim them into little globe shapes. The other side of the path is lined with them, too.

The low wall bordering this bed, DH made of brick taken from a planter he decontructed out front. Said planter had run along one side of the carport, making it too narrow to get both our cars underneath. The big pot we got at an estate sale, part of a fountain. Unfortunately, it leaked, but I love the bamboo we put in it today, a clump transplanted from a big concrete washtub we buried toward the back of the yard. The grass waiting to be planted is another Craig's List find, free from a young couple who wanted to get rid of everything in their yard and start over. The young owner told me the grass was a fountain four to five feet high when she cut it back. Maybe when it grows back to its full glory, someone can tell me what it is.


And this is the view from the other front walk, from just inside the other gate. There's a house between the two gates, so that isn't as weird as it sounds. Click on the photo to see it full-sized. It's going to be so beautiful! Someday soon. Soon...