It's amazing how one day of sunshine and mild weather can make all the difference. Yesterday (Sunday 7 April) felt more like "Easter" than last Sunday, which was actually Easter. I finally dug out that failing azalea from the Front Border and replaced it with a 'Wine and Roses' weigela and planted a 'Spilled Wine' weigela (a new shorter, more prostrate variety) in front of it. Both are in shades of pink/mauve/purple so should look good together. To make room, I also moved a small hydrangea down along the border, where it will get more sun and hopefully start to show some blooms. It's now in the spot where the Siberian iris were lifted; I've decided to move those across the path to fill in a gap left when I removed two big nasty thorny barberries from the end of the hedge. What a relief to have those gone! I felt bad digging them out and destroying them, but they were terrible to work around, especially after R trimmed the hedge and cut the barberries to form the end of the hedge. Those clippings were murder, no matter how carefully we raked them up.
My Romaine lettuce seeds are germinated, as are the okra seeds. I potted on the second flat of coleus; only a few are showing any color yet, but I'm still hopeful.
My lily bulbs of various kinds are just now appearing above the soil. I'm going to put in supports for them NOW instead of waiting for the tall stems to start leaning over.
And speaking of supports....I scored a big one! My friend is clearing out her house/garage in prep to move and she had two boxes (50 each) of wire lawn sign supports. Those upside down squared U-shaped wire thingys that you can slide signs onto, mostly for election type signs, but also construction and yard care companies use them. They make excellent plant supports and are just generally very handy around the garden. the wire is heavy enough to stand up to handling, but flexible enough to be bent into shape. You can also get lighter weight H-shaped wire supports for signs and although they can be helpful in a pinch, they aren't as good as the U-shaped ones (also, can be dangerous with those uprights sticking up).
This morning I'm heading up to the hen run to start working on setting that second post (Finally!). If I can just determine the post length and get it cut, that will be a big step forward. It's been so sloppy wet and muddy I haven't been able to do anything with this vital project.
And while I'm up there I "mightaswell" get those water iris back into the pond in the Folly Wall garden.
We'll be experiencing the solar eclipse this afternoon around 2-4:30 pm. We're not in the path of totality, but pretty near, so should be a good show. I baked "eclipse cookies" yesterday: basic sugar cookies, but I made a roll of dough with cocoa powder to make it dark, then wrapped that roll in a sheet of plain white dough. Refrigerated, then cut them into circles: dark center with light rim. Kind of cute!
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