GARDEN'S PLANTED!!

Written Monday, but we had yet another watery mishap---between water filter and ice machine, which Chris was still tinkering with til midnight, so I didn’t get any pictures sized or ready til now.


Monday Morning: Out early with coffee this morning, just enjoying the early breezes and the wind chimes and all the chorus of birds ranged in every tree round the yard. The view from my chair:



And:

We sat on the patio for a while, just getting adjusted to the day, and then strolled out for a moment to the garden, still damp from yesterday’s sprinkle-in of all the tee-ninecy seeds we’d planted.

The second tilling yesterday of the big round plot left it like cake crumbs, just perfect for all the almost-microscopic seeds. Even the Giant Sunflower packet had what looked like the little kernels I keep in the fridge, not the big old crackly gray teardrops folks peel with their teeth and then Ptuhhh! out onto the lawn.

You kinda expect a ghostly figure to appear from the arbor---all that’s missing is Mr. Darcy, strolling out of the mist in his long flappy coat.

Wintered-over, as they say, was a lovely clump of sage---it’s added lovely flavors to dressing and stuffings and butters for the past three years, and just this year decided to bloom.

The lavenders are veterans of three Indiana Winters, and That Yellow Thing is another of the immortal flowers---Sweetpea picked a clump for her Mama three weeks ago, and I stuck it in a plastic cup on the patio table. I just threw it out yesterday, and some of the blooms were still fresh.

And then the oregano-marjoram clump, which is bigger every year. I don’t know which is which any more, just that one’s taller---just a quick brush with your palm sends the fragrance of a Mediterranean hillside out into the heat of the day.

There’s Caro’s tall-grown lovage (lovidge, as Mammaw used to say, though she usually called it celery-plant). Lovely dropped into the soup pot or chicken and dumplings. There are two small tarragon plants in the back, bravely green even after the Winter, and the low nests of thyme and lemon thyme fared well, also.

We planted giant sunflowers, three-foot sunflowers, dahlias, cosmos, a great swath of wildflowers for butterflies, crescents of larkspur and double hollyhocks and zinnias, some fluffy bushes of baby’s breath, black-eyed Susans, and a wide smile of trailing soapwort around the front edge, in front of the lavender and sage.

Some garlic chives, given to Caro by a friend---they survived two days and nights in a bag, and started perking right up when the water showered down.

Don't you just LOVE this time of day? The night-still is clinging on, save for the birds, and everything is SOFT, somehow, like encased in velvet. Looking out toward the arbor:

We also added six good-sized hostas to the bed out beside the arbor; that makes eighteen back there---they just need a good drink now and again, and the hose has to be a hundred feet long, but they’re just so lush and beautiful, with just that little bit of tending. They need a good raking right now---we never did get all the maple spinners gathered up. I’m ashamed to show this picture, but it’s how things ARE.

We had a lovely morning, with a walk around the neighborhood, watering the roses, a nice try-out of the new little blue plastic “pool” and then a good dry-off and dry clothes. I climbed a little ladder and green-taped some of the exuberant grapevine up onto itself. Long tendrils were escaping every-which-way, caressing the face of every passerby through the yard or walking on the sidewalk, and we expect it to be making untoward advances to the tomato plants about August.

BabyGirl and I took an Elevenses break with tiny Cherry Vanilla cones on the patio, just because it’s NOT RAININ', Y’all.

Chris came home for a late lunch with us, Little One had a nap, and then her Mommy and Daddy came over after work for supper. Chris picked up Chinese and we ate on the new big plastic table on the patio about seven.

More little ice cream cones all around, another quick garden stroll and sprinkle, and everyone’s now safely home.

All through the rain, I’ve been wishing for a day like this.