Hands in the dirt

Hi,

It's about 8:00 p.m. I'd arrived home from work, changed into grubby garden clothes and headed outside.

The Thalictrum (Meadow rue) is blooming fluffy purple flowers ... that smell funny ... sort of like dirty socks. But they look beautiful! The Rosa Mundi, purchased as a heritage rose, has reverted to its rootstock ... and there are cascades of light pink roses falling over the poppies and peach leaf bellflower. I've got to prop up the branches of the rose so the others don't get too squashed.

Went down to what gets called the nursery bed ... it started out as about 12' x 12' and has expended quite a bit. It's a nursery bed because it holds things like:
- lavender and sage that has been hit hard by winter, and have been pruned back to almost nothing so they'll regrow (I even discovered a bit of root from a sage I'd taken out completely last year sending up a few tiny leaves)
- overflow of catmint, winter savory, pink bergamot .... when I have too many plants and think I'm going to send them to new homes
- there's a stand of purple coneflower -
- tansy
- mystery seedlings coming up alongside purslane
- more lavender, oregano
- strawberry plants that were rescues from next door some years back when two owners ago was going to put in a patio (never did) but I asked if I could take plants out of the zone ... got winter aconite too
- one potato plant coming up that must have gotten transferred in from the bed across the way
- comfrey - spreading rapidly
- Jerusalem artichoke - which came up so late this year I was actually worried that it wouldn't show (stop laughing all of you who have the plant!)
- raspberries ... which are being overtaken by the hops which grows way faster than I can remind my husband that we need a trellis, need a trellis, need a trellis for it
- elecampane, just to try
- two types of Chinese cabbage ... have I talked about redemption vegetables? When I plant the ends of distant import produce we've had to buy through the winter. The cool thing is that the two Chinese cabbages are going to produce seed at different times. The one is almost finished its bloom period and the other hasn't sent up a stalk yet, so there's no chance of them crossing with each other or with the two Early Jersey Wakefield cabbages that miraculously wintered over (possibly because we had such a dump of snow) and that are in a bed 6 feet away. They's just starting to bloom.

Just got the dinner call. 8:20 p.m. I just had to write stuff. All that miracle in one bed.

Love to all,

Why's Woman