You Can Learn a Lot of Things From the Flowers

But especially during quarantine. Mostly I'm learning that a) I have a major plant addiction and b) I still lack patience. The best piece of gardening lately is the raised herb and veg bed that I made in a cask planter. The basil was finally moved from its intermediate pot into something befitting the giant shrub it will become this summer. Where there is basil it is best to have marigolds, and of course basil itself is a help to tomatoes so I have some of those too. There's also purple kale and chives, rosemary, and mint. I've already started munching on the chives and the basil; the latter of which goes great with the strawberries in their own hanging basket. A little berry, a little basil, a little sharp white cheese with espresso and my day is begun in earnest.

The Hellebore is still hanging on, but the peony is just beginning to really bloom to the utter delight of the ants which have been coaxing it to give them more nectar for weeks. I've been to the garden center almost daily, mask in place, and have added more of some things like the Creeping Thyme and Scabius, and new things like a Wisteria that I'm hoping to climb up the retaining wall and across the fence. There is also a stunning new purple-violet-plue-pink Phlox in the mailbox bed in the front of the house, two lavendar topiaries on either side of the front door (which aren't loving that too-shady position) and some maroon-and-white Dahlia in the pot with the surviving Bells of Ireland. Truly though the two best plants recently have been a true blue Larkspur in the enclosure bed and a red and white double-grafted rose that makes me think of either Alice in Wonderland, or the War of the Roses with its white roses and red blooming on one plant. I tend to garden daily while the weather is tolerable, so as soon as I take a photo it's already outdated. The roses are now gorgeously at home in a teal glazed pot that offsets their glaucous leaves perfectly. Also not pictured, the sunflowers that I sowed into a narrow bed against the retaining wall, whose bobbing yellow heads should appear in view through the slats of the deck railing sometime in summer. I ordered some Crocosmia and a Blue Anemone to go with them, but the package has been stalled at a delivery facility in VA for a week now. Really wondering if they'll be viable still when they get here. If they get here.

The semester is at least almost over, with final papers being submitted daily and me trying to churn through the grading by next Tuesday. There have been meals outside some days and the dog is still thrilled to get so much time and attention. I can't wait for the golden days of summer, but there's one more project on the horizon. The path to the greenhouse has continued to flood with every heavy rainfall, so I am putting in a small border on the other side of it from the enclosure bed. I'll be putting in a deep base of grit, then soil mixed with sand and grit for optimum drainage, and then plants that aren't too upset being a little wet. Hopefully this will trap most of the water that is running off the packed-clay slope of the rest of the yard onto my path. Fingers crossed it works.