If slow and steady wins the race, then I’m in for a blue ribbon. I worked on the fence line bed again, and made a little more progress. At some point in time, though, this is all going to be perennials because I’m sick to death of preparing and seeding it, and this is only the second year.

First dianthus of the Parview Honeysuckle Horseshoe is…red! I don’t think they bloomed last year at all. Maybe, but I don’t think so.

…and each step is one step closer to…the end of that goddamned huge flowerbed! Only a little because I was hot and tired and hungry, but it’s more than there was finished this morning.

I think I’ll have Sweet Tea honeysuckle blooms soon.

These are in the swamp bed, and if they’re lobelia cardinalis, then I ended up with all the seeds in one damned spot because there’s a big clump of these, then…nothing.

Dame’s rocket that I forgot I planted last year certainly are pretty!

I have no idea what these are, but they’re growing nicely in the concrete flowerbed on the south side. EDIT: They’re Garland Daisy, Chrysanthemum coronarium.

I finally finished the goddamned weeding, and even started to put in seeds. I was supposed to be doing laundry, and it was hot out in the sun, so I didn’t get much done, but at least it’s something

Ten miles behind me…

…and ten thousand more to goooo….

In good news…scarlet pumpernickel is up.

P.S. I also got to be a birdbath again!

Friday after work, I planted my American mountain-ash along the northwest side. They’re just sticks, and I doubt more than one will live, but there they are, finally in the ground and mulched.

Yesterday morning, I planted the serviceberry on the southwest side, in the “naturalised border” that currently contains lots of weeds in addition to the poke berry and boneset that I actually want there.

I weeded the fence line a bit in the afternoon, but I’m still not done. Lost quite a few honeysuckle last winter, but some survived. Almost as an afterthought, I planted the five autumn sage ‘Radio Red’ that I bought at Buchheit after work on Friday. They’re perennial, but I don’t know; some sources say zone 7 and others say zone 6. I probably should have put them on the south side, but I want to watch the MLBs. They were $3 each on sale, and I got five, so as long as they live this summer, I got my money out of them.

I still have five Mesa Yellow gaillardia to plant (replacing the red ones that didn’t survive the winter), and two astilbe to fill in the patio bed.

The columbine blooms disappeared almost overnight, but I found new buds, so I deadheaded the seed pods before they could mature. A huge carpenter bee was happy there were a few blooms left.

More of my Virginia snakeroot survived than I’d thought!

Found a firefly larva while I was digging holes for the mountain-ash.

Old Kitteh has been going out tomcattin’ the past couple of nights, worrying P to death. I figure he knows it’s spring and he’s supposed to do that, even if he doesn’t remember why.

I’ve been weeding the fence line bed for two days. Fuck everything about wild onion, BTW. In good (if more digging) news, my trees (sticks, really, but healthy sticks) from the Arbor Day Foundation arrived. Four each of American mountain-ash and downy serviceberry, plus two free little forsythia and a free red maple. They’ll have to wait in water until I get home from work tomorrow. In good news that doesn’t mean more work…my sign!

I still don’t have signposts for my Monarch Waystation sign and this one, but I work in a metal fab shop…I’ll find something.

Fuck everything about these bastards.

I already had the posts, but today, B gave me the last 20′ left over from a repair we did on an antique fence (last year?) He also gave me T-post clips, and the loan of a post-smasher  (not the technical term, but appropriate). I’m going to make a trellis for cardinal climber and scarlet runner bean outside the south window of the Man Cave  (with P’s permission). Deh-day and Miffy can watch MLBs up close, and no neighbours can make me trim it (and I won’t). I’m painting it green to match the posts.

Speaking of MLBs, P saw one this morning, but I didn’t get to see him. I left work a little early to weed, but decided I’d better water my seeds first. I caught something out of the corner of my eye and thought it was a dragonfly…until the hummingbird flew through the hose spray! I froze, and he flew through a few more times, then off he went. We both saw him at the feeders this evening. I hope he’ll stay, but I’ll understand if he has to keep going north.

I was going to weed when I got home, but when I opened the bedroom window for Miff, I got inspired to get the Man Cave windows to open, and get one of the screens installed because it had none. The window that would open had no screen, and the one with the screen wouldn’t open.

First, the screen. I’d bought a spline tool a while back and on the second try, the right size (huge) spline, so it was just a matter of installing the screen. Hot in the sun, but no problem. I’ll never be mistaken for a professional screen installer, but it’s taut and looks okay.

Happy Miffy…until he scared himself because he’s used to looking out that window, but not used to hearing noises…like THE WORLD’S LOUDEST CARDINAL. Anyway, Window Kitteh is always happy to have a window.

Then, I started on the window that wouldn’t open. What a nightmare! I got it loosened with some penetrating oil, but there was one spot that simply would not budge. More oil, wait, mini wunderbar, screwdriver, swearing…nope. Okay, I’ll take it down so I can push from the edge. Jesus H. Christ…it’s stuck on with caulking. Ooookay, bitch, you’re coming off. Some Phillips screws, some slot, lots of prying, but finally, I got it. Took it over and tried pushing the sliding window with my fingers. Nope. Hammer and screwdriver. Nope. WTF? I finally worked it up over the edge and got it out. Looked to see what was making it stick…nothing. WTF? Slid it in, worked fine, but stopped at the spot where it was sticking. I felt along the edge; lo and behold, the screw was not the original, and was just slightly longer. Just long enough to catch the sliding window’s frame! I was going to just replace the screw with one the right size, but it wouldn’t turn. I said, “Fuck it,” and got my mini grinder (and safety glasses!) Ground the tip off the screw so it was flat…window works fine. I’d torn out the shitty old screen in my quest to open the goddamned thing, so I installed new screen. Cleaned the inside, brushed out the space between the windows, put the window back in place, then cleaned the outside. Came back inside, put 3-in1 oil in the track…and now Miffy has another window. Plus, I got to use my grinder. I don’t know how else I would’ve been able to fix that window without it; too awkward and too hard to sand, and the frame probably would’ve bent before that screw moved.

Also…columbine finally gave it up and bloomed. Only two, but they’re beautiful!

In less awesome news, Charlotte visited my flowerbeds. Worst in the soggy soil of my micro-swamp, but not too bad, and I’d rather have deer than not!

Another one under my 2015 belt! I started right after I got home; seeded the bed, shredded what was shreddable from the pile beside the bed, spread it over the seeds, took the unshreddables to compost, trimmed the grass I couldn’t mow last Thursday because there was a pile beside the bed, spread a light covering of cypress mulch (still took almost 4 bags), and soaked with water.

I also put some annual rosemallow in the swampy bed, cheated a little by putting a few in the spot I’d missed in the Honeysuckle Horseshoe, mulched those, watered all of my seeds/seedlings except milkweed. Whew. Finished at 1930h. I’d be afraid to calculate the hours I’ve put into the Bistro!

EDIT: P returned the air rifle and got a less powerful one that we hope won’t be quite so loud. D wouldn’t give a damn if we had a howitzer, but E&A would have the police here, telling them there was automatic gunfire and possibly explosives. Yes, from a single-shot air rifle. They need to be in charge of an HOA somewhere that people are told what colours they can use for house siding, and what flowers they can plant, and that they can’t park their cars anywhere but the driveway or garage.

It was waaaaay too much work to just call it a flowerbed. It was an undertaking! On Friday afternoon, I took half a day vacation and stripped off the grass. The crabgrass, quack grass, and clover, all rooted at the core of the earth. No pictures; I was too tired. On Saturday, it was supposed to rain/thunder/crap, but I took a chance anyway and started digging.

I’d got quite a ways along, but I was so tired that P felt sorry for me and pitched in. We finished pretty quickly.

I was a little short on the pond liner because the cable (whatever it’s for) that runs through my milkweed bed also runs through this one, so I had to leave that shallower and go up and over, and back down. No big deal.

We got the dirt back in fairly quickly, and we were so close to done when it started to rain that we just kept going. It didn’t rain hard, and no storms; everything went around us.

Dirt all back in.

This morning, P fixed my tiller, so I put four bags of compost and two big bags of MG soil in. Sounds like overkill, but the soil is not good there, and after that much work, I want my stuff to grow!

I planted joe-pye weed, lobelia cardinalis, great blue lobelia, helenium, the fancy okra and mallow that C got for me, and…I think that’s it. Oh, yeah–Kankakee mallow, too. I bought some black-eyed susan that wants wet soil (forget what it’s called), and have some rosemallow I forgot to put in. I’ll do it when I get the rudbeckia.

I also tilled the cosmos bed. I’ll try to seed and mulch that after work tomorrow.

Random stuff. Canadian columbine is making me wait.

Borage isn’t.

Old lady’s lilac.

Firefly heuchera. Finally.

I’d been cursing the grackles, chasing my little birds out of the feeders. P bought a rather expensive solution in the form of a powerful air rifle. Look out, starlings and grackles!

Attaching the scope. Yes, this thing has a scope. It’s also silenced; still a little loud, but not bad. It’s cool as hell, and I don’t think we’ll need to shoot too many of the miserable bastards before they’ll move along.

Mah grassz. Look at dem. I was supposed to be doing laundry, but I was tired of looking at overgrown grass and weeds, so I finished mowing the lawn. Too lazy to make a pano.

Miracle tuliptree is making branches. Little branches, but it’s only a little tree!

The new gearbox for my tiller finally arrived…with a little more than the gearbox. I’m not saying a goddamned thing; that’s what they get for taking nearly 2 weeks to get an in stock part here from NJ. On top of that, there was a sticker from the St. L PO saying it may be damaged (wasn’t, just the box, but it was a scare after waiting so long!)

B came in and asked if I wanted a baby rabbit. At first, I thought he’d found a dead one and was just being mean, but the lawn care guys must have flushed a nest, and this little dude was huddled next to a pipe on the side of the building. He’s a fast little bastard, but I eventually caught him on the railroad tracks, and got him in a box to bring him home. I waited a while, then when I came outside, all four cats were where I could see them, and I took a chance. He’s a double handful, and his white forehead blaze is gone, so I’d say he’s old enough to be on his own. I turned him loose in the brush pile, and gave him a little poke in the butt to drive him farther in. Hopefully, the cats will hang around the house, waiting for P to get home and feed them.