There I was, minding my own business, measuring bags of topsoil to calculate square footage (sold in pounds) when a rogue “Sweet Tea” honeysuckle fell into my hands. It caught me off balance, and as I fell through the checkout, it rolled under the scanner and I was forced to pay for it. Tragic accident! I planted it outside the Man Cave window; I hope it’ll get enough sun there. Took me ages, too, because the soil up by the house sucks.

Tag, for when I forget what it is.

Not beautiful, but once it grows a bit and blooms, and the lawn is nicely  mowed, it’ll be lovely. I hope the MLBs will agree…if I ever see one. Should also help block the view of the ugly air conditioner when I’m trying to take photos in the Bistro, too.

I found a few worms, a non-Japanese beetle, and this. Looks like a firefly larva, but no pink?

All I did after work was dig dandelions, and 2.5h hardly made a dent, but at least it’s a few hundred thousand seeds that won’t end up in my flowerbeds. Anyway…

I guess this hydrangea likes me more than the old lady. Last year, it had exactly two blooms.

P’s bachelor’s buttons (which I have dubbed “bachelor’s beacons”) are coming up. Planted five days ago!

The rain may have rinsed a liiiiiiitle pollen off the roof.

I have my first milkweed escapee. It’ll get mowed, but for now, I’m leaving it. Not bad for a second year crop!

I also got my clover seed, cardinal climber seed, pond liner (for the rain garden) and rain suit today. I’m not going to seed any spots in clover until the lawn is mowed. P ran over the front and south side after he got home, but it’ll need mowing again by the weekend, I’m sure!

It was raining, and I didn’t expect to see Tree Dude, but they were all finished, ready to be paid when I woke up from my nap. The birds lost a few perches, but they’ll adapt, and I can actually plant something over there now, I think. I’m going to wait for a sunny day to make sure, but at least the Grey Stick will get more light. The other Grey Stick and the Cliffie Bush are leafing out nicely, but that one is slow. Hopefully, it’ll be better now.

All I planted today was oregano seeds, and they were an afterthought, but things are growing, and my shoulder needed a rest anyway.

There’s…stuff…coming up in the south flowerbed. I know most of it is zinnia and tithonia, but the rest? Dunno. I only sort of remember what I planted there anyway. This is tithonia.

These are…surprise! I don’t know.

Red bee balm is not fucking around. This was a tiny clump last year. Now, I’m going to have to move the phlox!

My pipevine lived!

So did my dwarf joe-pye weed–I was getting worried!

Old lady’s lilac is blooming. It’s happy over on the south side; it’s even putting out new growth from the bottom.

I didn’t take pictures because I didn’t quite finish the mulch, but I cleaned and seeded the bare spots in the Honeysuckle Horseshoe yesterday. I put in scarlet sage, purple coneflower, plains coreopsis, golden wave coreopsis, dwarf cosmos  (looks like Bright Lights, but short), dwarf cosmos Ladybird Lemon…something else, I think, and a few experimental lobelia cardinalis that probably won’t survive. I ordered a 7′ x 10′ pond liner for lobelia cardinalis that I hope will survive, but that bed isn’t even dug yet.

When I got home from work on Friday, I finished cleaning the grass roots out of the cosmos bed, but my tiller needs a new gearbox that hasn’t yet arrived, so that’s not finished, either. Oh, well. I’m making progress in Bistro 2015, though it’s raining today, so I won’t accomplish anything outside.

Catching up on a few photos…

Borage, taken Thursday after work. Borage does not fuck around.

Marjorams. Yes, I know it’s just marjoram, but they’re such cute little dudes.

When I was dumping debris from the Honeysuckle Horseshoe, I found this little guy. I wonder whether anyone actually plants tuliptrees, or whether they just spontaneously appear as seedlings in areas where no mature ones are growing, and people take pity on them because they’re tiny and cute. I haven’t decided whether to move this one to a better spot, or just keep the area free of junk vegetation and weeds, and leave it where it decided to grow.

Three out of five hardy hibiscus are leafing out so far. I hope they all survived; I adore hibiscus, and especially the ones that I don’t have to baby.

My native hibiscus doesn’t have any leaves yet, but the seed pods I scattered around it last fall have produced some seedlings. I collected a few to plant in the rain garden with lobelia and mallow, too.

This is the Honeysuckle Horseshoe as of 0650h on Sunday. Crap shot because I stood on the patio out of the rain, but it’s documented, which will do for now. I hope all of the penstemon Husker Red that I seeded last year from 544 seeds I collected will bloom!

I was trying to find out whether I could (carefully) paint glyphosate on the onion grass that grows too close to my flowers’ roots for me to dig it up, and I found the answer, but also found this, which amused me greatly.

Lawn? Is another type of soft green plant growing with your grass really bothersome, or is that just a belief from being told it’s supposed to bother you, a problem for which one must buy poisonous potions? Why worry about which “green things” one is mowing down to a few inches high? “Before I cut it down, I want to make sure it’s all just one plant.” A concern I’ll never understand, even if I had all the time in the world. Strangely, believers of this are often the same people who bag the clippings and leaves, then pay for fertilizers to replace the lost nutrients, water to prevent the shallowly-rooted grass from dessicating, and aeration because of the lack of organic matter (and therefore the earthworms, microbes, etc…) in the soil that keep a soil healthy and spongy. …which then grows a nice healthy lawn. …because they want a nice healthy lawn.

Another half day today; I came home and finally planted the long-suffering columbine. I made a little bed, and in front of it, I seeded gloriosa daisy, dwarf cosmos, and dwarf bachelor’s button.

Phlox looks nice, though I’m considering moving this one to take the place of the one that nearly died and just let the red bee balm have that spot (it’ll take it anyway).

Random violets, just because I like violets.

The Virginia bluebell doesn’t look like much in the bed.

But the flowers are pretty!

I also planted my overdue Baptisia seeds in two places in the Honeysuckle Horseshoe. I doubt it’ll grow–the poor things soaked for three days–but at least I got it in dirt!

Finally, I almost finished the cosmos bed, cleaning up the grass I uprooted when I expanded it. Lots of worms; they appreciated the fact that I’d turned the sod upside-down to weaken it. I’ve got about another hour’s work to finish, then I can till and plant. My back gave out just as it started to rain, and I was not heartbroken. Fed the birds, pulled a few bush honeysuckle seedlings, ordered some clover seed for rough spots in the yard. Now, I just want to SLEEP!

I took the afternoon off today and decided to put the edging on my cosmos bed. I’d enlarged and reshaped it a bit one day when it was the only soil not still frozen, but hadn’t finished removing the grass because I wanted rain to rinse off as much soil as possible; the soil down there isn’t half bad, considering the neglect. I had hoped to finish it, get it planted and throw on what mulch I’ve made so far, but…crabgrass. Fuck crabgrass; it all just needs to die. Anyway, I did at least get the edging done, so there’s not a whole lot left before I can plant. Whole lot of rain for the next week, though, so I dunno. Roughly 15′ long, 8′ wide, roughly an ellipse, so about 94 square feet.

I found roughly a brazillion worms, but also a few of these guys. Carabidae larva, I believe. Very speedy for a larva!

I also have…a phlox. Just one, but there’ll be a few more. Pretty!

P.S. The little seedlings down there are jewelweed; I finally remembered to look, and they’ve got their first set of true leaves.

P.P.S. Almost dark, had to use flash.

Small marjorams in the Bee Happy bed.

Possibly even smaller…goldfields, also in Bee Happy bed.

I finally got the waystation sign. Still waiting for habitat, but one down!

They must have made this one especially for me…the back is baby pink.

We had miniscule borage a couple of days ago. Borage does not dick around!

These just miiiiiight be aster…or weeds, but I did plant asters here.

I got T posts for the cosmos bed, and I’m going to find a way around the gas line to do the tithonia. 18 – 5.5′ and 2 – 7′ for runner beans and/or cardinal climber.

If I don’t get my six beautiful pink columbine in the ground, they’ll be done blooming! Yes, that’s five pink and a rogue purple.

It sneaked in; didn’t have any blooms, just buds, so I thought it was pink. I like my rogue, though.

Wild Canadian columbine that I put up by the patio.

I’m going to take half a vacation day tomorrow to do…I don’t know. Something. Christ knows my to-do list is long enough!

It has only a thin layer of mulch because I don’t want to suffocate the seeds, and it still needs its soaker hoses installed (and that’s when I finish the mulch), but everything is planted. Not that I remember what I planted, but that’s why I saved the envelopes and made a list!

Seeded:

Mulched:

Contents:
Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’
Blazing star
Salvia Blue Hill (probably won’t grow)
Tithonia Torch
Tithonia Goldfinger
Gloriosa daisy
Yellow gaillardia
Pearly everlasting  (just 200 tiny seeds)
Missouri sundrop
Catchfly (annual)
Prairie coneflower (annual)
Blue flax flower
Zinnia California Giant
Zinnia Cut and Come Again
Zinnia Cherry Queen
Garland daisy
Dwarf bachelor’s button
Dwarf cosmos  (orange/yellow)
Dwarf lance-leaf coreopsis
Purple coneflower
Rocky mountain penstemon

I started at about 0730h this morning, and didn’t finish until 1400h, stopping only for maybe 20 minutes to eat lunch. I thought I was going to die, and my back won’t forgive me for a week, but it’s done!

I also planted a few seeds here and there (too tired, didn’t keep track), and put 28 crocosmia bulbs (20 Lucifer and 8 Montbretia) in the Honeysuckle Horseshoe. Still have plenty of seeds yet to plant, a few blazing star bulbs, and the six columbine that will be done blooming by the time I get them in the goddamned ground. However, I also have…bluebells! They’re growing well and quite lovely.

Wild columbine is growing, and I might even get a bloom.

At least one Virginia snakeroot is alive.

Astilbe isn’t dead after all, and heuchera is going to bloom (planted too late last year to see it).

In spite of the gummy clay, the gravel, and the nutrient-less sand, and the fact that my tiller quit once because it overheated and the second time because…I don’t know, but it’s broken…I did it. 20 feet long, 9 feet wide, bordered with scalloped concrete edging and tilled/shovelled/forked/whatever it took, and almost ready for seeds. I’m going to Mindy-weedel some Miracle-Gro soil into the top couple of inches, then start planting tomorrow. It took me about 9.5h, and nearly killed me, but I did it!

P must have known how wide the concrete border was.

The old lady’s clematis is very happy in full sun; you could almost stand there and watch it grow (bonus violets…I like violets).

The creeping phlox is blooming nicely. Too bad it’s about to be overrun by red bee balm (fine with me…hummingbirds love bee balm).

Houston, we have…borage! I planted it sometime last week after work, but I forget which day. It didn’t waste any time! Happy bees, once it starts blooming.

I also planted Scarlett O’Hara morning glory, and the instant it breaks ground, I’ll be there with the Deer-B-Gon; Charlotte is not going to snack on my morning glory this year!