An Afternoon of Gardening

Very proud of these, because I started them from seed last year!  

This bed is not too bad... I'll work in it in a few days.  Yes, I have to cut trees out of it... 

but all in all, the plants grew closely enough together that weeds 

were pushed out. 

Blooming, and soon to bloom... and the little tree... soon to be dug out! 

These beautiful red lilies were hiding under some volunteer sunflowers. 

The orange lillies in front of them are about to bloom.  I got these at 

WalMart several years ago at the end of the season... and they are coming back nicely. 

Here is the reason I am working so hard... the south bed became totally overgrown... okay, not totally, but very overgrown.  This is the end that still needs intense work.  The clump in the middle WAS kniphofia, but 

I am not sure any is left.  There IS still  a clump to the right, but you would never know it from the weeds.  

I'll work on this tomorrow afternoon. 

Here is what I was working on.  I lost one of the asclepias plants... the orange one.  I lost all three of the buddleias... and tomorrow, I am going to take the pruning shears and cut as much of them down as I can.
I can't dig them out, so maybe I can find another solution. 

Now... let me tell you about the "mulch". 

When the goats left, I had put two bales of straw in the hay barn. 

I swung the door open today and saw this: 

Not one, but two wasp nests.  If some of you recall, we were both stung several times last summer in the goat barn, and we had to finally resort to getting an exterminator to come and get rid of the wasps for us. 

You KNOW I do not like to kill God's creatures.  

I did not get threatened today, but boy, was I watching. 

I got as much loose straw out as I could with the pitchfork. 

Then, I went back for more.  I thought something was wrong, and when I pulled the bale out 

into the cart.. I smelled something good. 

It was HAY. 

I went ahead and cut it up into flakes... and hauled it over to the garden.  I would not normally use hay as mulch because of the seeds in it, but you know I am trying hard to save money in any way I can. 

I am leaving some of the volunteer sunflowers, and that's a Stella D'Oro daylilly already blooming in the foreground.  Tomorrow, I'll rake all the weeds up, and work on that north end of the south bed.  

I still have work to do here, too, at the new house... I have some petunias to put in, but I need one more bag of Miracle Grow potting mix, and I am too pooped to go get one tonight.  I'll swing by Wal Mart in the morning and get that bag. 

Some of these plants are coming here, as I can get the planters filled. 

Those clouds didn't really keep me from perspiring all afternoon.  Whew! 

We are expecting bad weather on Friday now... instead of Thursday.  We got only the tail end of the storms that came through Nebraska and Iowa last night, and we hoped none of our friends or family up there had trouble. 

Looks like no one did! 

It's lonely out there without the chickens around me... I admit it.  I'm also missing my little companion who was always at my feet, there and here. 

We have water in our side yard again, but I have watched the robins and starlings today... they are bathing in it!  I'm going to have to get a small birdbath for them to enjoy this summer. 

Oh, PS, as they say...

Here I talked last night and said I would use Round Up on the weeds in our new backyard. 

Today I ran an absolutely SCATHING criticism of Roundup... so I'm having second thoughts about that! 

I don't want to do anything else to hurt the bees.