More Blossoms!

The azaleas are just about in full bloom. The lilacs are out, and I'm looking forward to mine growing & blooming in future years.

We've done quite a bit of driving this weekend- Liza & her Rotary friends had a get-together in Gettysburg. I took advantage of the trip to get together with George & Alexandra, our friends from Raphael Inn. We'd spent some time during our visit earlier this year talking about gardening, so I went laden with black-eyed susans and echinacea from our garden, along with lilies from across the street, and an extra aster plant received from a friend this morning.

After a pleasant chat and tea in the garden, I came home with more plants for our garden.

We'd already been over to a local friend's house to pick up some asters and strawberries, and came home with oregano and larkspur also. Those were safely tucked into the ground before I headed north. I came home from PA with a purple "weed" and planted it into the wildflower garden. We'll just have to clear unwanted weeds and lay the path around it. Identifying the plant is a research project for tomorrow.

George & Alexandra's neighbors came out when they saw us wandering around the garden. They are in the clear the weeds & start-over process, with lots of lovely, sunny beds to play with. Tim and I discussed his plans, and I just had to rescue the little lilies-of-the-valley he was going to pull out and throw away, because they wouldn't fit with what he planned.

I have those tucked in safely now. Sure hope James likes where I put them!

I also planted about 6-8 square feet of peas. It's late in the season to put them in, but here's hoping! I did give them a bit of a boost by saking them for several hours (like all the time I was gone to G'burg) before planting them. I have also planted a package of yellow wax beans (about 4 square feet) earlier this week. Those are actually in right about on time.

After bringing in six strawberry plants from Ann's house today, we're thinking the side bed below where we put the canteloupe hills is going to become our strawberry bed.

The oregano has been planted out onto the herb hill. I'll run across the street and clip some purple sage at some point this week. Once the clips have rooted, they'll get to move out to the herb hill also. We've got basil seedlings started in the side bed. Anyone have some dill I can adopt?

It feels really silly to be furiously pulling strawberries (wild) from one side of the house, while planting them on the other, but that's what we're doing! We're going to turn the East side yard into a wildflower meadow. This week's projects include pulling all the wild strawberries and laying a meandering wood-chip path. James intended to get the path down this afternoon, but he got caught in traffic taking Kyle to meet his mother, and didn't get home until after 8 PM. No fun there, but we enjoyed a few minutes sitting on our new furniture in our gazebo after he got home. We're looking forward to making progress in the meadow over the next few days.