I only got to spend some late afternoon hours in the yard but I feel I got a lot done. I weeded 4 raised Iris beds that I had previously weeded. I can't believe that the weeds grew that fast. Then I cleaned the weeds out of 3 other raised beds, One will be used for Iris and the other two for vegetables.

It is suppose to rain overnight and tomorrow so I probably won't get outside.

SDB Double Byte

Oooh I want Double Bite now

I took a few pictures, and directed DH in pruning dead iris stalks (since I can't do it), and we both deadheaded (that I can do with one hand). I'm sorry to say that a couple unopened buds were lost due to DH's learning curve.

DH hates all the patio pots with a passion (and I wish those pots could mostly be elsewhere or the plants in the ground), but right now I am very grateful for them, as I am mostly staying indoors, and that's how I'm enjoying my irises this season. It's so nice to look out the floor-to-ceiling doors/windows and see all that color right there.

Elsewhere, in the kitchen garden, DH (having had to plant the tomatoes for the first time EVER) is now a helicopter parent! He is checking on them everyday and reporting their status. (I already had to correct him on proper mulching technique.... just wait til I have to instruct him on training the tomatoes and liquid fertilizing them! Maybe all this will give him more of an appreciation for my past efforts... )

Today the main project was to get 16 out of 18 Iris planted in a raised bed. I have to doctor a couple before putting them in. So glad to get this one or 3 or more raised beds to plant with Iris from pots.

This is the next bed to plant which is right next to the above one next to my She He Shed.

This is Dizzy's Garden (3 Iris raised beds) which is part of our sitting area under the shade tree by my She He Shed.

Good work so far, Jeanne

Marilyn, Maybe DH will turn into a gardener after all this!

Lol, Andrea, I rather doubt it. At our last two houses DH enthusiastically did some pruning NOT to my liking (causing permanent negative structural effects), so I've forbidden him to do any here, unless under my literal micromanagement. He seems to have no sense of how plants naturally grow or where it is appropriate to cut for best effect, never mind our differences of opinion as to plant form. No, he'll always be a "weak mind, strong back, gardening slave" (his words, not mine) when it comes to plants.

He's just desperate for those tomatoes, which is why all the hovering. It's good AND necessary to keep an eye on them, but he's going to have to be patient!

It's raining today so I won't be doing anything outside. I'm glad, because the pots were all very dry, and the tomatoes will get a good drink! I'll probably have DH go cut a flopped VERY tall stalk of one of the pool stairs irises (maybe ADVANCED DEGREE, I don't recall) which I didn't see yesterday, and bring that inside to join a stalk of GLACIER POINT we cut yesterday. (What IS it with all the tall (some flopping) stalks this year? )

Marilyn, I was like your DH with my first vegetable garden, which was in pots on my second-floor apartment's balcony. I had one tomato plant that I fussed over and was thrilled when I saw the first tomato developing. It got to be about the size of a golf ball and then, one day, I found that a cutworm had eaten half of it. I was furious!

I wonder if the tall stalks this year are a result of two good rain years in a row. Last year, we were coming out of three years of severe drought with heavy rains from December 2022 through May 2023. The stalks on my established plants were just of average height and few in number. But this year, although we've had less rain, it came in January, just as the iris were beginning to grow, and continued plentiful to the end of March. The stalks on the established plants were much taller than usual and were numerous. It has been a really good year - more like Oregon!

Most of the Irises I have, bloomed and I haven't lost one rhizome.
I still have Loud Music, San Souci, Cinnamon Girl, Signal Butte that should bloom within the next few weeks.
The season is almost over but it was spectacular, after the Birds were CD'd.
My seedlings are emerging without Ali Babba and the 40 Thiefs (Quail) using the seedlings as a breakfast buffet. Those CD's really work for birds!
All in all, a very good year!

Ratchet!
Signal Butte may just be taking a year off. It's an early bloomer for me - blooms with the IBs and SDBs here.

ratchet said: Most of the Irises I have, bloomed and I haven't lost one rhizome.
..The season is almost over but it was spectacular, after the Birds were CD'd.
My seedlings are emerging without Ali Babba and the 40 Thiefs (Quail) using the seedlings as a breakfast buffet. Those CD's really work for birds!
All in all, a very good year!

Congratulations!

Happy for you Ratchet.

Great that you figured out the culprits and got to see the show.

Wonderful stuff to hear, Ratchet! About time something went your way

Great news, Ratchet!

TL;DR, I had a small circle garden get pushed over a hillside when I forgot it was there when my new driveway was installed...some of the plants (irises) are resillient.

It's been nearly a year since TB Sugar Blues ans TB Drinks at Sunset got thrown off a cliff and buried in shade, but they're alive with some minuscule rhizomes. I moved them both into a bright, sunny side of the house so fingers crossed, they do something.

Nothing to see here.

We ended up with a couple of inches of snow in MAY!!!
There were stalks and buds, but now I don't know if they will open normally. I don't recall having snow this late before. We are now going to be on a warming trend. Hopefully it will continue to be warm.
¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!😊

Beautiful, Evelyn

And also disgusting. It's May.

Monty, on both points!