Whew!

It's been a tough slog, but the flowers are in! I'm not sure how many I planted, but I'm sure it's north of 300.  Might be closer to 400. That's a lot of digging. One of these years I ought to add it all up. For sure I planted 128 plants on the 22nd - most of them during an all-day drizzle. (It was also the day of the deadly landslide in Lilydale park - I could hear all the sirens and helicopters while working.) But it just needed to get done, and it's certainly good for the plants! Far better than a hot, sunny day.  For a change, this year it's nearly exclusively annuals.

My perennials did reasonably well over our winter, although I did lose a few.  The biggest loss, as far as we're concerned, is our lovely rose.  It emerged from its winter cover with the branches looking nicely green, but it hasn't yet put out leaves.  Sigh.  I think we may have to give up on it.  We've tried 2 or 3 since the one that came with the house died, so we may just have to accept that it isn't meant to be.  Too bad - it's a beautiful plant and it did so wonderfully last year.  I'll give it more time, as everything is behind, but I'm not terribly optimistic.

They're late, but great.  Our lilacs - which did pretty much nothing last year - are absolutely loaded this time around.  You can smell them all over the yard.  When it rains (in other words, pretty much all the time), the water makes all those flowers so heavy the branches sag.  Not much in the way of daffodils this year, but the tulips are ok.  And our crabapple is beautiful!  Last year we had a freeze just as the buds were setting and we got nothing.  This year it's loaded and in full bloom.

We lost a bleeding heart.  No idea why. The one next to it is fine.  We've had them for years.  So that's one perennial I did get and it's coming along nicely. And for some reason, much of the Missouri Evening Primrose in our native garden didn't make it.  Not a huge deal - I always have some to spare from it spreading in the backyard.  That's where it came from in the first place!

I came home from work Friday and spent 3 hours in the gardens.  Joe came home from work an hour early to get the lawn mowed.  We had a jungle instead of a lawn!  Good thing he came early, as it started to rain not long after he finished.  It looks much better now. I drenched the roses - about time!  This stuff protects them from all kinds of nasty critters and diseases.  They don't look great this year.  I'm planning to get out soon and prune them and am hoping it's just the late spring.  They're certainly all alive, but most have fairly large branches without leaves. 

Things are blooming in the native garden, too - the wild geranium, the prairie smoke, the columbines and the shooting star. They're all delicate little flowers, nothing showy like daffodils, but so pretty.

I still have a few veggies to get in the ground.  The soil is just too darn cold for tomatoes and peppers yet.  I put black plastic down where the tomato will go. That should help warm the soil so I can get it in.  We'll put the peppers in containers again.  They're black plastic, and that really warms the dirt.  Can you ever get too much warmth for peppers? I got the last container all ready for carrots, and then read the directions. I had no idea you're supposed to soak the seeds before planting!  We're doing those in a container because our soil has so much clay that our previous efforts have resulted in carrots about 3" long.  They grow until they hit clay and stop!  We can make the soil in a container much looser.  We're not out much if it doesn't work.  Looks like the first rhubarb picking will be today! I found a lovely rhubarb chutney recipe that goes really well with pork or chicken.  I'm excited for dinner.

Oh, I have my baskets from Gerten's!  If I do say so myself, they look pretty good.  My only quibble is that they hang too low to the ground.  They blend in a bit with what's there.  The plant hangers we have were pretty expensive - I don't want to go buy more! The baskets sure are heavy - it's all I can do to move them, so the hangers have to be really heavy duty. One of them is held upright by using a bungee cord to use the fence for support!

Update: I pruned the roses today (Sunday).  Lots of dead wood - more than I remember seeing before.  I think it took me 2.5 hours to do. My back is sore...