I didn’t get much done at all this week with the cold getting much worse on Tuesday. Not too functional when I cough so much. But I was some better on Thursday, able to sit at my desk and get the bills paid.
I went out later to get some photos and managed these 2 of this bumblebee, mostly by accident. It moved far too fast for my camera and me. This one is on the lamium on the south side of the back porch.
I got this one first on the north side of the back porch, in the New East garden on the lungwort flowers.
I grabbed the camera in the first place because I saw this guy outside the window. Another surprise because it moved pretty quickly too. I bet it’s the one we’ve been seeing for the last 6 weeks.
My general helper came on Thursday because she could work outside. She dug up all the white iris in the Small garden and moved them into this newly dug West Shed garden.
Then she weeded where they had been in the Small garden and used the loose hay pile to mulch the area.
Next she moved into the diagonally opposite corner to dig out all the Anne raspberries that had moved in over the winter. She was going to take them home to make her own patch. She weeded and then mulched as well as she could, given there wasn’t much mulch left in this garden.
My helper friend is staying away this week due to my cold. He’ll be back next Tuesday.
The East Shed had a few surprises. One was 2 buds on this peony. It doesn’t get enough light and very rarely flowers. I’ll be surprised if I get flowers from these buds.
Another surprise is a robin has built a nest between the trellis and the siding. There’s only about 4” at best, so the nest can’t be very big inside.
The last surprise is one of the tulips in this East Shed garden will have fringed flowers. I had thought I’d lost all the tulips for flowers.
The lamium under the azalea is flowering very prettily. No sign of buds on the azalea.
Close-up
In the East of Steps garden in the front of the house, the dianthus has several flowers open.
The New East’s bleeding heart has buds.
These red tulips in the New East garden survived the deluges we had this week. Many of the bulbs didn’t.
In the Old North garden the sweet woodruff has buds.
The Virginia bluebells are still flowering.
Close-up
A verbascum I planted in the New North garden last year has flowers already.
In the alcove of the New West garden, the pink lily of the valley I planted there have flowered, far ahead of where they came from on the northwest corner of the old house. Those just barely have buds now.
In the South Herb that peony has lots of buds as it gets plenty of sun.
Speaking of sun, it returns on Saturday. I’m going to a Farmers’ Market with my general helper first thing to get plants I don’t grow, like lemon verbena and rosemary. Then we zoom off to a town across the river for a homesteader’s cleanout tag sale. I hope we get there early enough to get some things.
I found a tour of a Chestnut tree farm for the afternoon. I’ll have to see if my friend wants to go.
On Friday I don’t plan to do a lot. The seedlings need attention, house plants need fed, and if I am up to it I need to do an errand. We’ll see…