The Big Dig

Well, the Big Dig has officially started here at the homestead. We are having our front "porch" and sidewalk from the driveway redone, and the long and the short of it is that every single plant along both sides of the walk has to be dug up and stashed somewhere for the duration. The fun began by digging up the 3 rosebushes. The 'Angel Wings' rose, which I grew from seed, got potted and put in the back vegetable/cut flower garden. It's looking pretty peaky, so I'm hoping that the stress hasn't killed it already. It's not that I particularly admire the rose, but I did grow it from seed, and everyone who hears that is impressed as hell. For that reason, I'd kind of hate losing it. Time will tell, I guess. Next were the two hybrid teas, 'Fragrant Memory' and 'Gertrude Jekyll'. 'Gertrude' went by the garage, replacing 'Peace'. ('Peace' gave up the ghost this year; I suspect the voles spent the winter snacking on it and killed it.) 'Gertrude', I regret to say, is not looking well either. 'Fragrant Memory', on the other hand, is looking quite robust, and I think that will do just fine.

After the roses were dispatched, I started in on the peonies. Let me tell you, peonies that have been in the ground and undisturbed for nearly two decades have hellacious roots. I got about half of them out, and I was done in at that point. Unfortunately, since I'm doing this at the wrong time of the year, I just have to hope that I've got some good eyes on the divisions. I would be vastly annoyed if this turned out to be all for naught, and I lose all those peonies! Especially because they were passalongs from a very dear, now quite elderly (93) friend of mine. That would hurt.

No work will be done tomorrow, as the forecast is for a high of 90, with oppressive humidity and thunderstorms. Also because I have fibromyalgia, and I'm still hurting from yesterday's exertions. Work resumes on Sunday. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish up the peonies, and at least begin on the spiraeas. Once I get that done, the rest is a piece of cake. I just hope that the contractor isn't swamped, and will be here sometime in July or early August - and then I can put everything back again! What can I say.........it's a sickness!

"Peas" on Earth

Happy, happy, joy, joy!! My peas have begun to produce! I was out after dinner this evening cutting flowers, and I happened to glance over at the pea section - lo and behold, a dozen or so fat little green pods. I grabbed them all, came inside and began sampling. Is there anything in the vegetable world as sweet and luscious as the first garden peas? These were like tiny bites of candy, or eating sugar cubes. Delicious. Of course, it immediately occurred to me that I need to pick and segregate so that I can trial them and decide who makes the cut for next year, and who isn't worth bothering with. But that will be for next time. For the moment, I let greed take the helm. After all, I think I planted 8 or 9 different varieties, and the season's just beginning. Plenty of time and opportunity coming to be scientific about it all. Let there be peas on earth, and let them be in my mouth!

Outside Cleanup Aborted - Inside Cleanup Begins!

Well, it started out being a lovely day. After nearly 2" of rain yesterday, today was to have been sunny, mild and windless - ideal for the group of garden clubbers who came over to get some free plants. We dug all morning, then had lunch on the patio. And it WAS sunny, mild and windless. Until just about the time we finished eating and I looked over my shoulder and said, "Hey, it's not supposed to rain today - but those sure look like rain clouds". Sure enough, about half an hour later it got dark, windy and it poured for five minutes. Pure lake effect.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the phenomenon known as "lake effect", herewith a short primer. Basically, it's this - the cold air aloft moves over the warmer air of the Great Lakes (Ontario, in my case) and gives you boatloads of snow in winter and wave after wave of brief but intense rain showers at this time of year. So, having been driven indoors by the certainty that this would just be an endless feedback loop all afternoon, I turned my attention to the conservatory. This has been a total rat's nest for the last 2 months - dirty vases, empty pots, packets of seed everywhere. Now, I can look at a mess for a long period of time and it won't trouble me at all. But there comes a point in time where it's all suddenly a burr under my saddle and it has to be dealt with NOW. Tomorrow won't do. Next week won't do. Next.......well, you get the idea. I rolled up my sleeves and set to. By dinnertime, I had all the clutter off the floors, all the vases were washed and put away, and the first batch of pots was washed and set to dry. Phase One will be finished tomorrow. And then it's onto the Next Big Thing - back outdoors to begin the Big Dig. We've contracted to have our front porch and sidewalk replaced, and that means that I have to dig up every single thing along both sides of the front walk. All of it. By myself, unless I can rope in some unsuspecting friends......

Ode to the Waterbabies

One of the delights of June (albeit early this year, as we've discussed in previous posts) is the Oriental poppy. Actually, I love all poppies; Oriental, Iceland, Shirley, what have you - but the most striking are the Orientals. Big, sometimes gaudy, always striking, the show they put on at this time of year makes me forgive their utter lack of usefulness the rest of the season. Matter of fact, in the interval between the end of their blooming and the disappearance of their tatty foliage, they're downright ugly. For now, though, all is forgiven for my 'Waterbabies' are blooming their fool heads off.

'Waterbabies' is a strain that I purchased from White Flower Farm a good 10 years ago, and sadly they no longer carry it. They come in an astonishing array of shades: watermelon-colored, carnation pink, pale grape, a deep, almost wine color. They're totally unlike any other strain I can think of, and I wish to goodness they were still available! Six years ago, we had our patio and a pergola installed, and all the plants in the bed where the pergola was going had to be moved. Now, most gardening books and authorities will warn you that any attempt to transplant an Oriental poppy with its monstrous taproot will only create much wailing and gnashing of teeth, ending in the loss of said poppy, so it was with great trepidation that I dug the 'Waterbabies' up and potted them. I held my breath that whole summer, because of course the foliage wouldn't reappear until autumn. You can imagine my jubilation when I saw the new leaves start popping up in the pots, because by then they'd disappeared from the WWF catalog, so if I lost these, I was SOL. They then went back into the bed under the new pergola, and they've been thriving there ever since. I think this year I'll try to save some seed to start next winter, because nothing lasts forever, and June simply wouldn't be June without my "babies"!

And The Madness Continues.....

Today is May 31. I emphasize that date, because this morning, I drove by my favorite farm stand and saw that they are open for business - selling strawberries. STRAWBERRIES. I have never in my life in the northern US had local strawberries before early June. Never. This is another one for the record books! As if that wasn't goofy enough, I also noticed that I have a fiery orange Oriental lily open along the front of the house. I've never seen one of these blooming in May that hadn't been forced in the greenhouse. However, I was gratified to notice that it was blooming alongside my 'Kopper Kettle' Itoh peony, with a blue delphinium poised to open in the middle of the other two - a handsome color combination if I do say so myself. And if I don't, who will?

The Madness Continues....

I am, as the Brits like to say, gobsmacked. I was doing a turn around the garden this evening, and to my shock I discovered that I am likely to have lavender blooming before this month has completely ended. Lavender in May - that's one for the books. As if it wasn't weird enough to have roses blooming before the end of May (that's at least happened before in very warm years) and possibly having delphinium blooming as well, now I have lavender??. If this keeps up, my garden won't have a bleedin' thing in bloom by the end of June. I've never seen the like. Now what was that about global warming being a myth?

A Grand Day Out

This morning, I invited members of a garden club near Lake Ontario to head down south here to my place. The lure was plant shopping at a very fun little nursery about 10 miles from here. I had given a program for their club last summer, and told them about Good Earth Greenhouse. The woman who owns it grows a lot of unusual annuals and herbs from seed, along with perennials and sells them from her side yard. Her prices are reasonable, the quality is excellent, and it's stuff that you just won't find anywhere else. Plus she hands out a free baby plant of some kind with every purchase. The ladies were all for it, and they arrived here about 11 a.m. After a tour of my yard (my iris and peonies are spectacular right now, I must say - and if I don't, who will?), we headed over to Clifton Springs, stopping first for lunch at Warfield's Restaurant, which none of them had ever been to. A fine lunch was had by all. Several of them took my recommendation of Caesar salad with buttermilk-fried shrimp (to die for, trust me) and were very glad they did. They also insisted on buying my lunch, which was lovely of them. Then it was off to buy plants. As if any of us really need more plants. And the irony here is that pretty much everything I have needs dividing, and I offered to share many of the plants they admired at my house - so they're coming back in September for a work party to score still more plants. What can I say - it's a sickness. But I digress. The bottom line was that the ladies were enchanted with Good Earth, several of them intend to go back before she closes for the season, there is such a thing as a free lunch, and every one of us bought more plants. What more can you ask from this life?