I'm busy ignoring the weeds this year since we're slowly renovating the place we're moving too and just digging up plants I want here at my current place and taking them to the other place. Ran out of gallon pots so transplanting is at a standstill at the moment. Plant shopping to get some annuals is Sat so that day is taken but next weekend a couple friends agreed to help me clean out a couple beds in prep for family coming to town so I can get to planting and concentrate on other areas after it's done.

Haven't done anything yet except move some containers around outside and just wait for my seeds to continue growing.

I've already planted a few delphinium seedlings, (Connecticut Yankees) and I brought a few more up from the basement, as well as some foxglove seedlings. These delphiniums I started in December. They are the ones from the seeds from New Zealand. They are still small. I thought I would have already planted them out. The weather with snow, then lots of rain, kept me out of the garden for quite a while. (All the while, the weeds waited for no one!)
I really thought the New Zealand delphiniums would be larger and more robust than the Connecticut Yankees. Well, at least the weather is cooling down again. I would like to see them grow a bit more before they flower. It's chancy, relying on weather.

Evelyn, delphiniums and foxgloves - two of my favorites! Delphiniums just don't do well here and although I have perfect conditions for foxgloves, I can't get the beautiful purpurea biennials to grow. I have tried numerous times, numerous locations, numerous methods - seeds, small plants, large plants. Nada. Not happening Other foxgloves do great - the perennial digitalis grandiflora (yellow foxglove), digitalis lutea (small yellow foxglove) and digitalis thapsi Spanish Peaks. I just wish I could get those beautiful tall spires of purpurea!

I woke up this morning to much needed rain. Steady and gentle, supposed to rain all day. We sure do need it and I need a break from the physical strain of the gardening efforts that I have been pushing myself with for months. I've got that Mid Atlantic plant swap at my house coming up in 3 weeks. The gardens still need a lot of work and it won't all be done by then, but anything I do makes it better than it has been

Efforts for the last two weeks have been focused on spraying weed killer on the emerging stilt grass seedlings that carpet every bit of garden space. This thug weed has taken over and without getting to it before it set seed for several seasons, it is a nightmare. Next week I'll start mulching. It is going to be a major expense, even with my husband's business discount. I switched from shredded hardwood to pine bark mini nuggets about 5 years ago after seeing it in several friends' gardens. I like the look. It isn't carried in bulk but we get it by the pallet - I think it is 64 bags. It is actually easier for me to handle bags than bulk so it works out fine. I'll start out with 5 pallets, but I won't be surprised if that doubles. I've never hired help to do garden cleanup or mulching, but I'm thinking with the time crunch and volume of mulch that needs to be spread I might just do it this year.

Terri ~ At least you are able to grow SOME foxgloves. I don't really know if this experiment will be successful or not, since I have not grown them before. It is supposed to be in the 80s for the next couple of days, then rain for a week. Usually about this time it stays hot and all of those plants would never do their best here. I know that I am taking a chance.

Have you tried growing 'Foxy'? It is supposed to be an annual that blooms the first year.

I'll let you know if there is ANY success with these plants at all. Usually we are hot and dry from now until November, then snow. Usually no or a very tiny amount of rain during the summer..

Seems like every day I have off it rains so not getting much done.

Rained here the last 3 days too, last night I even took all my plant I bought and put them in the garage... there was a chance of light snow.

It's raining here right now.

Send us some rain please, we are bone dry!

It has been raining here too - heavy Friday and Sunday, light Monday. Wonder what today will bring. I still have quite a bit to do in the gardens before the plant swap. I would also like to get the greenhouse kit constructed before then too, but not sure if that will happen or not.

The rains have stopped here and the weeds are growing like crazy. I am tackling my garden one small bit at a time.

What I did NOT do last year and early this year was to spray my nectarine trees properly for peach leaf curl. With all the wet weather, my poor trees are so infected. I only managed to do one spray in mid February when the trees were starting to blossom.

Today I cleared off a spot near the pool deck to plant some annuals. I'm now regretting the river rock and landscape fabric in that area. I planted two containers with annuals.I also started getting some of my yard art out. It doesn't sound like much, but I'm beat!

I prepped my vegetable garden and started hardening off the plants , hope to plant on Wed. Also planted a few Hosta I had mail ordered.

I am still spraying emerging stilt grass seedlings. Got through another gallon. Then I hand pulled thistles that have overrun another garden bed. Got about halfway done before the sun was hitting directly on that area. Then moved to a shadier spot where sister-in-law Bonnie and I are attempting to root a bunch of pachysandra clippings. Late afternoon Mike, Bonnie, and I got started on cleaning out the millstone fountain reservoir and getting it back up and running for the season. The reservoir grates have screen mesh on top that has seen better days so I went to HD to get a roll to replace it. Picked up chinese takeout on the way home. Good productive day.

Sure sounds like a very busy day.

Continuing today: removing hybrid seedlings of different lungwort cultivars and removing seedlings of Brunnera 'Alexander's Great' (latter, plus the original plant itself) to be able to retain distinct lungwort and brunnera cultivars in the small back garden. Also, trying to corral the Anemone ranunculoides (below: too much of a good thing). My problem with the latter is not the result of seeding, but of inadvertently spreading the rhizomes around when working the soil. At least, like other ephemerals it does have overall habit of more or less "here today and gone tomorrow". However, in the meantime, it detracts from other ephemerals, for me, especially the more desirable A. robinsoniana (below).

A lot of help today and a lot more done. I woke up to hear Bonnie weed whacking around the pond. I don't especially care if it is weed whacked or not, but both she and Mike think it is a lot nicer. Mike got out there and mowed the steep dam. Then Mike and I finished getting the millstone fountain back up and running. The millstone is really heavy and not that easy to work with, but with some blue words it is done. Then got some eye bolts into the trellis feature where I'm trying to train a wisteria laterally. After that, Mike's brother Richard and his neighbor Casey showed up to help. They got a whole pallet of mulch put down. I have one more pallet here but will need another 4 pallets to finish the beds. I pruned a bunch of dead wood from shrubs, dug up and potted a few things to pass along at the upcoming swap, and other odds and ends. Bonnie, Mike, and Richard managed to get the paddle boat pulled out of the pond and tipped on end to drain all the accumulated water from overwinter. Bonnie will pressure wash it sometime this week. The 20th and hosting of the Mid Atlantic swap is now less than two weeks away...

@aspenhill , Terri, I too have a thistle infestation. I find it easier to soak the whole area and hand pull them (with special gloves of course )
If soaked deeply the whole tap root comes out.

Hi Mike, thanks for reviving this thread!

I put so much effort into garden work before that Mid Atlantic plant swap on May 20th and once it was over, I've been taking a break. At first I gave myself a week, then it stretched into two, and now 3 weeks out I've done a little bit, but not much. I have been mostly reading and napping on the porch. I love to read, but oddly most of my reading time is in the summer vs any other time of the year. It is time to get back to gardening.

As far as those nasty thistles, I've pulled them so many times. I think I am getting that long tap root, but they keep coming back. They all got pulled again right before the swap, but they are already emerging in force. I've got that Round Up Brush Killer spray that might work on them. I meant to try that earlier, but never got around to it. That is next on the gardening chore list to do.

So much smoke here from those Canadian wildfires. Code Red air quality in the Washington DC area today. The local news is cautioning against any outdoor activity so I'll be staying mostly inside today.

I reported a bunch of.the new seedlings I started in my winter sowing I started back in January. It felt so good to be playingp in the dirt for a few hours.