First thing Sunday morning I got the seedlings sorted out and started taking the shelves and lights out of the dining room window. The house had done ok on Saturday in the heat, but it was warmer inside on Sunday as it hadn’t cooled down much overnight. I needed to be able to pull the shades as much as possible.
I filled the shelves on the porch after taking one more tray to the cold frame, balsam and Tulsi basil this time.
I put a 4th tray on the bottom shelf, though it’s not ideal, being so close to the door handle and light switch. As expected, the sprawly seedlings are growing rapidly. I hope to be in the garden early on Monday and start planting and mulching, now I have amendment.
Next I got the week’s laundry going. I’d hoped to have it hung out by noon, but kept forgetting it when the washer finished. I think the last load went out at 2:30. Fortunately with the heat, and the wind rising through the afternoon, it dried by 7PM and I was able to get it inside before the storm hit.
I had noticed that the azalea had flowered due to the heat, so once I had those 2 projects done, I went outside while it was still cool and got photos.
The spiderwort had also started to flower.
I’d cleaned out the Anne raspberry bed, fed them, and mulched the bed in April. But for a long time I wasn’t seeing much growth. But the heat made them burst forth over the weekend.
When I hung out the laundry I saw the wood hyacinths had opened. I have one pink one in that bed.
When I came back from barn chores, I noticed there were 2 flowers on the rugosa rose.
As soon as there are several I’ll need to collect them for the dehydrator. But that means getting seedlings out of the south window of the porch…
In the 3rd Fence garden, one of my verbascums has flowered.
In the 6th Fence garden the creeping phlox is still blooming. The blue is creeping veronica.
When I turned around the woad in the New Herb garden, Row 1, is at its usual wildness with flowers. This is an incredibly prolific plant!
Behind it in Row 2, the blue flax my cleaning helper had weeded is flowering. I have more seedlings to plant there. I hope to get to it this week while the weather is so nice.
The bachelors’ buttons at the other end of the New Herb harden, the volunteers we left in the top walkway, have started to flower.
In the heat, the peony in the South Herb garden has swollen buds. It will open in a day or 2.
These pretty dianthus by the front steps are so cheerful. And they should last all season if I can keep them deadheaded.
I spent most of the day editing photos and watching Season 1 of Downton Abbey. It was far too hot and humid and I’d not slept well. I had thought I’d go to the cellar to work, but just didn’t have the energy.
Around 4:30 the wood guy showed up on his big tractor and started pushing the trash wood over the bank.
In March this is what that area looked like. The wood guys had come and cut up whatever wood was still good and pushed the big pieces over the bank as they would cost far too much to process.
We had the woodbee and got the good wood in the shed. Tom had knocked down the briars on Saturday. And now this area looks like this. We’ll get it raked out smooth (Tom plans to bring the York rake back and use my Ford tractor to do this) and I hope to get grass seed down and keep it all mowed, like we used to. The wood guy did a really nice job!
I don’t know if I will bring in log lengths ever again. That’s under discussion. But this year it looks like most of the wood coming in will be stacked right into the shed. I’ve talked with the wood guy about getting the empty side of the shed filled this week. What to do about wood for the other shed is still up in the air as the shed won’t be finished until autumn.
Well, I’d best finish this, got do the cats, and get on with my day.