Phlox - one of my husband’s favorite flowers
On Thursday I got a message from my new helper that she’d lost power on Wednesday and had to stay home to tend the generator until it came back on. So I went out by myself at 6:15AM and got started weeding in the New Herb garden.
Row 3: French tarragon, spearmint, honesty, lavender and red bee balm
I’d done ½ of Row 2 when I started, so I sat in the 2nd walkway and finished Row 2 and did half of Row 3. The spearmint had gotten out of the pot and was in the walkway and had run east into 2 other beds. I got that mess cleaned up.
For the last 2 years, the red bee balm had been crowding out the lavender, which was there first. But this year the lavender has gone crazy and is taking over the red’s area. In front of the bird bath, the salad burnet died.
I clean out the walkways all around the beds as I go. I started down the other side of Row 3 and was doing ½ of Row 4. I got to the peppermint bed. Here it’s half done.
This was the peppermint bed full of weeds in December, so I knew it was going to be awful to clean out, not to mention pulling the peppermint out of the walkways and beds.
Row 4: arnica flowering, unknown tall plant, balsam, baptista, peppermint, echinacea paradoxa
Because the peppermint bed was so bad, I did the whole thing instead of half and half. When I got to the end, the winter savory had been overrun by some invasive thing that appeared last fall, cleavers, and a viney thing with tiny white flowers. I got that half cleaned out.
You can see that bed in the upper right. As I turned the corner to start the other side of Row 4 and half of Row 5, I encountered the pineapple mint. It had gone crazy, filling the walkways and the bed on the left. So I started pulling it out of the walkways and got all 3 sides done. But I was worn out and couldn’t clean out the bed on the left. So Row 4 isn’t quite done nor the pineapple mint.
So I quit at 10:15AM and got cleaned up. My helper friend arrived at 11:30 and fed the seedlings and did the foliar feeding. It had been a good day up to this point. I’d had a good one on Wednesday too.
In the New South garden the “black” hollyhocks have opened. They aren’t as dark as last year, but still not my cup of tea. They also are covered in the rust.
West Shed - daylilies are excellent
I’d hoped with a few hours rest I would be up to working on the curtains but I was pretty crashed the rest of the day.
My brother and I made a haddock stirfry for supper. My mom is coming to visit for a week and we had noticed that the nearest scooped ice cream place had closed. She loves ice cream and so we were looking for a new place. My friend had told me of a place the next town west so we went to check it out. It doesn’t have as good a selection as our old place but it will serve.
On Friday my new helper is here at 6AM and I am hoping we will finish weeding the New Herb garden. My helper friend is here and he will be making butter, and if he has time, doing some milk spraying. It’s to turn hot, and probably humid on Friday also.