New Additions

Thanks to all the rain, digging and planting is easy! I planted a new knock out rose near the bat house last night. I hope to get the hydrangea and weigela in the ground tomorrow. I will block out the neighbor's propane tank eventually! Also, I got a compost bin at the County's sale last weekend. It still needs to be assembled, though. I bought some landscape fabric to help keep down the weeds in the planting beds and to circle the smaller trees and shrubs. I'll place a few pieces tomorrow, too.

It is about time to place the herb seedlings. The tarragon, oregano, thyme, and basil are doing quite well, the fennel and parsley are doing okay, but the cilantro and dill are not growing well at all. Also, some of the mesclun is doing okay. I should have segregated them by germination time. I'll do better next year!

Basil goes in a hanging basket to protect it from the rabbits. I've got some grape tomato plants that will go in a basket, too.

The peonies aren't new, but they are starting to bloom. I got a couple more pieces of ornamental garden fencing that I've wrapped around the plants to keep the branches off the ground. I saw the peony rings, but I don't see how you get those around the plants once they're up to full height! Yeah, yeah, I should have set them up before the plants got so big, but I didn't. Anyway, I can use the little fences for other things once the peonies are done blooming.


I have a beautiful patch of irises this year! After cleaning out the scrub (thanks again to the former owners), there are easily twice as many irises visible than there were last year.


Turns out a bunch of the weeds in the iris patch and in some of the other planting beds were POISON IVY. Ugh. Fortunately, I had done most of the spring cleaning before the evil ivy leafed out, so I didn't get a rash then. But I have it now. This is my first experience with the rash. (Typical in my family not to get it until adulthood.) Now I am spraying anything I suspect...