Still wet here. So I'm finishing laundry and cleaning my living room of which kid2 disasters all the time. I'm also thinking of dragging out the totes for summer clothes and put winter away.

I plan to head out in a bit and try to mark how many iris I have in the south bed. And I'm hoping a lot of the noids may garner names. I'll be sure to measure the plant height this year as that can be a help too if and when I ask the NOID group. And Jeanne I'll probably be double checking with you as well on the ones you kindly gave me. And maybe this year I'll finally have time to make tags that are more permanent.

Or probably not!

I just made some hard boiled eggs. I'll stick them in a salad. I'm like totally grazing today! Not a good thing. I guess I'm worried about something!

Still wet here. So I'm finishing laundry and cleaning my living room of which kid2 disasters all the time. I'm also thinking of dragging out the totes for summer clothes and put winter away.

I plan to head out in a bit and try to mark how many iris I have in the south bed. And I'm hoping a lot of the noids may garner names. I'll be sure to measure the plant height this year as that can be a help too if and when I ask the NOID group. And Jeanne I'll probably be double checking with you as well on the ones you kindly gave me. And maybe this year I'll finally have time to make tags that are more permanent.

Or probably not!

I just made some hard boiled eggs. I'll stick them in a salad. I'm like totally grazing today! Not a good thing. I guess I'm worried about something!

I'm off to mark my chart with what I have going on in the iris department out back.

Edited to add: it's still pretty wet out there so I'll just stay in today.

Last prom dress is ready for pickup. I think I'll take advantage of the sun and weed. Hopefully I can sew tonight after therapy horsemanship lesson. There is only one client today.

I got to spend a little time outside today. I did some weeding but just left the weeds in a pile in several places so will have to clean that up tomorrow. I took pictures of newly bloomed Iris and spent too much time on the computer trying to ID them. Now to make new labels and get them on tomorrow.

Scarlet, I hope you get to ID your Iris this year when they bloom. It is harder than I thought it would be. I have this light colored one that could be any one of 13 light colored ones that I have.

Then I have this light blue one that I have narrowed down to 1 of 3.

This is my Snowball bush in the front yard with Smoky, my Miniature Schnauzer garden companion.


Scarlet, you asked about the trampoline bed. I actually finished weeding it today and took a picture. I need to pick up the weeds as you can see.


Well, it is time to start supper. We are having a salad with toppings for supper along with some fresh morel mushrooms so I best get the mushrooms washed and cooking.

Spaghetti night here because this mama has no ideas. I have been mighty tired today in part to that darn early panic if I laid one of moms bills. Ugh. I hope to sleep through the night.

Jeanne: the trampoline bed is filling in. I would love to see another photo when it's all in bloom! Yes I hope so. I am going through and making notes and found one collection in a Schreiners catalog that might hold the key to one of my small collections. It was a bunch of fractured colors and it would be great if these others bloomed this year and I could say yes! I have those. I will go back through the years I thought I bought (they only have 2 years worth up) and I don't know if maybe I tucked my receipt somewhere way back when. So keep it in mind and when I finally sort through some of my crap and if I find it I'll be at the ready to deal and can add it to my running list. What I plan to do this year is place the photo within the spreadsheet so I can go back and forth if need be. Some of them are similar to one another but have slight differences.

What doesn't help is the vendor that I bought some of the recents from hasn't been what I ordered so I have some that are really don't work with where I have them. I'm hopeful to see a lot of them bloom. So far the weather appears alright for blooming. Well w the exception of the 80s tomorrow. It's been pretty even keel.

Off to have my spaghetti.

If it doesn't rain tonight or tomorrow I may be able to get out in the garden Sat. I need to work the grassy spot around my irises that will become wildflowers but in the meantime be my veggie bed this year. Need to get planting and it's been impossible to get anything tilled with the crazy weather. So will dig by hand and plant. Need a truckload of mulch but we're short on vehicles right now so my old truck is being driven for a few weeks until one gets fixed.

Amanda, I hope you can get your ground worked up without too much difficulty.

I went back outside once DH told me it would be raining in the morning around 7. I finished putting the grass clippings on the last 2 Iris beds planted. I pulled a few weeds and watered a few thirsty Iris in pots. Then I took the cushions back inside because they had not been put on the chairs yet. Maybe I can get them on tomorrow since they will be dry.

Tomorrow is an early morning Dr. appointment with DH's surgeon. I hope he says that he can start driving himself to therapy.

Not sure what else tomorrow will bring. But I hope it is a nice day for gardening.

ScarletTricycle said:Johannian: dandelion bread? I know about dandelion wine. That was nasty looking stuff. Not sure how it tasted as I was young and a neighbor made yearly, myself, I don't see the appeal unless it was economical to make and get a buzz going. I should read on.

I'm the type of guy who likes to use plentiful wildly-growing plants to make something. Dandelions certainly fit that bill, so I figured I should be able to use them for some kind of bread or something. That's how I found the recipe I used. But yeah, dandelion wine is also on my list of things to eventually try out, as well as homemade mead. I've also made tea from our natively-growing prickly pears.

Prickly pears get edible fruit as well so keep your eyes peeled for them. I've heard they're good but never tried any myself.

Sorry, that's what I meant: I use the prickly pears, as in the fruit. Haven't used the actual cactus yet, but I've heard you can use those too.

They're good, but the flavor is very subtle. Extremely sweet, and an almost persimmon taste can just barely be detected. But dried up and used in tea, it's very good; almost like a sweet hibiscus tea.

Mornin all!

It's chilly this morn! 47° or so it says on my thermometer. And with the windows open it's brisk but alright.

Today will find me with limited garden time so I think I will be able to get the dahlias sorted by height as that's how I plant and it will help in pulling them for planting.

Of course my first goal is to finish up the south bed - weed, plant, compost and preen. I need to throw preen on the front bed back half where there are no seeds. And shake in the iris box. Maybe I can do some of that this morn.

I will have to see what I can come up with and off my list.

And irises:they are looking alright and I'm starting to see more buds. So I'm hopeful to get some more named and I'm hoping to see what I have and maybe later this year get to make a few changes and blending of colors so it doesn't look as garish where some of the misnamed ones are at.

Oh and the Lilly update - they are coming up! I have a few with blooms on them already. Woohoo. The oriental ones are finally coming up and the asiatic are climbing in height. That's good to see.

The rest of the plants are doing well. I should take pictures of where things are at and where they can lead to!

Happy day to you all. I'm off to figure out my day and hopefully get a few things completed before my afternoon projects.

Finally! The closest one to bloom in my yard:





It is in an area where I had only one type before but I don't think it's that one, as the one that I know has bloomed before in that area is a historical people thought and not ruffley at all. This one looks a tad ruffley but I'm sure that can change too.

I have about 4 in the iris box w buds. I have about 6 in the ones from Jeanne, 2 in the ones that have never bloomed from a vendor. The front bed has about 4 and I need to go compare my photo to my chart so I know if it's one I already know or an oldtimey in my yard I lost the name of. The rhizome is huge!

Time to bring on some blooms! Surprise me world with colors and types I haven't seen in ages!

Jeanne: do you have other Spaceage iris? I have Hook from you. Just curious I'm starting to read on them and how they found them or bred them to have horns. What do you know about them? I also discovered I have another called Concertina. Have not seen that one bloom yet.

Mornin all!

Still dark out here.

Today I have plans. And I'll hope to head out after I send the hubs off on his retreat. I'll let the kids sleep in and then I'll go deal w the larger southbbed. Mainly a weed and planting the plants and then loading with compost. Hopefully it goes easily. Then I'll head to the dahlia bed and weed by the iris and pull the buckets I had planted at winter time for protection. I then will add the stakes and see where the dahlias will take me.

Happy day to you all, hope the gardens are going well!

A couple garage sales for me then hopefully garden work. Gonna be hot, near 90 but as long as I chase shade I should be able to last all day.

Raining here currently. Came in as it was more than sprinkles but not a downpour. That's suppose to happen today but if I can get the south bed/peonies and weed dahlia bed I'll be happy. I still need to throw compost which is next in the list for the south bed. All planted and weeded as best I'll try. Damn wood violets. They always like to mingle w the irises in that bed. It's kind of futile and at some point I might just say have at it like I did in my shadier bed I tend to ignore. I'll throw preen in hopes it helps too.

Irises w buds! I can't recall if I shoved some of the extras in this south bed or if these are ones who have just not bloomed in ages. Time enough I may find out.

I'm happy to get more plants in the ground. The large task will be the dahlias but if my family helps me some that would be good. I forgot I have an event tomorrow afternoon so maybe only a partial day. I feel like I'm just dragging my feet where those are concerned. Really I want them all in the ground in case my mom takes a turn for the worse, but I have so many end of school year things that are wreaking havoc for me.

I need to go find a power snack. Where are my cashews?!

I got done about an hour ago and I'm dead!

The south bed is done being weeded, planted and composted where it was ok to, preened and really I should put the sprinkler on. Got the small run of peonies done; who'd rather be elsewhere than where I dumped them. Then I went perimeter of the dahlia bed and dealt w the iris. I didn't weed there late summer and it was totally overgrown and a mess. So that is all cleaned up. I need the hubs to pick up some fertilizer for me and I'll get that on them. Also preened that area as well.

Whew. My hands aren't happy nor is the rest of my body but I'm glad that is done. Now all that is left is the dahlias and remaining annuals to go around the empty spots. And the weeding the perimeter of the yard and shade bed which is mainly nettle besides the bushes. I'm back and forth about putting a white opine in that area. Still thinking on it. I'd do a green giant arborvitae but I'm reminded all over the place how they get when it snows too heavy. Plus I don't know if it's works in my zone.

So the irises are probably like I can breathe! And I'm hoping they get going and ready to bloom. With some time and some good weather maybe they will!

Picked up 7/8" last night!
Seedling canna's looking good.
Picked up 3 blood roots and a Korean Angelica at a local sale.
Watched 2 parent geese and 7 babies crossing a street, in the crosswalk!

Working on digging up my veggie but future wildflower area up by hand. Big area. Perimeter today. Taking a lunch break because it's full sun in there right now and it was zapping my energy.

I'm up a little late tonight. Just getting caught up and relaxing.

Today I up potted some Iris that I over wintered in pots. They were crowded and not sure where they are going so to larger pots they went.

Rj, I would have liked to have seen that.

Amanda, I hope you were able to work on your veggie area. I have not even started my veggies yet. I have about 4 empty raised beds just waiting to be planted. I have onion sets that should go in and green beans need to be started. I still need to go buy my tomato and pepper plants. And maybe a delacata squash and an English cucumber plant. Monday and Tuesday are supposed to be rain days so maybe that would be a good day to go to the nursery.