THE LATEST FROM SPRING

Tiffiny has been working very hard in the

garden with spring clean up. I am quite

proud of her and want to show the

progress she has made. The following

photos are the mess with which she has

had to deal. There are fields of weed next

door which blow their seeds into our yard

each winter. The weeds do quite well

here. I've come to learn that there are

green things which are welcome

and those that aren't.

Every bed was loaded with winter weeds.

Weeding was the main job before

planting or pruning The weeds choke the

life from everything else. Tiffiny mumbles

a lot about the weeds, but she says that

she really does like the pulling action and

the satisfaction of the results.

There are 2 jobs this year for son-in-luv

Sachio to do this year. 1 is to remove or

re secure the Butterfly bush tree blown

over by last winter gusts. It's the bigger

green thing behind the purple thing. I

haven't learned what the purple thing is

yet. The 2nd thing for Sachio is to move

and secure the arbor to the garden

entrance.

This is the first part of the garden
beyond the arbor. In this bed is the
columnar apple tree which is a fruit tree
designed to grow upward rather than out.

It was prettier earlier, but now the apple

blossoms are done. There is also the 4th

of July rose on the right which isn't too

happy there. Not enough sun. To the

left are 2 Betty Boop rose bushes, A

Joseph's Coat Climber and a 3rd climber.

Tiffiny started a flat of Candy Tuft to put

here. There are already 2 planted from

last year, but there hasn't been enough

sun for them to bloom. The white is a

filler of white alysum. The walk is still

messy from weeding. A good tiding

up is needed here. Again Tiffiny tells me

that she is 'dancing as fast as she can'. I

don't know any thing about that since I

don't have legs.

Joseph's Coat Climber--Betty Boop Bush

4th of July climber

These are the Lamb's Ears in the bed at

the base of the covered porch. The green

things mixed in are unwanted tree

sprouts from the neighbor's tree which

became stimulated when the garden was

first put in. Tiffiny says that she dug out

a cart full of roots and tree sprouts last

year. I'll bet that she grumbled a lot then.

Here again are the Lamb's Ears and the
main rose rambler called New Dawn.
I noticed that the garden bench needs
attention. I need to talk to Tiffiny about
doing something before fall. If she
grumbles, I'll need to talk to her
about that too.
The Lilies are all swollen with buds and
ready to bloom. Life is so exciting and I
am so very glad to be a part of it and
report what I see.
The new Canna from last year in the
foreground is doing well. Tiffiny tells me
that this is the 'hot' color bed and when
we get enough sun later that the colors
will pop! I look forward to a nice display.
You can see the pond in the back. It is
full of tadpoles. Tiffiny was very happy
because that meant that she didn't need
to concern herself about cleaning it until
they grew into frogs and left the pond.
Frogs; another life form I haven't met
yet, how exciting!
Here are some pictures of frogs Tiffiny has
shown to me so that I will recognize them.

Tiffiny says that she is
still waiting for this one, what ever that
means. I can only guess that it must be
very rare and not ordinarily found in
average gardens. She says that she
would be so happy to see him that she
would give him a big kiss.
Here is a sweet beginning of a
Lily-of-the-Valley plant. A wonderful lady
from elsewhere, I think Tiffiny said back
east somewhere sent her 12 starts or
pips as they are called. Tiffiny has
planted them through out the garden to
see where they like it best. This one is
under a lovely peach rose bush in the
Peachy bed. Tiffiny says
that this is a statue in memory of a
favorite cat named Silky and that Silky
was her 1st friend when she moved to
this area. He's in the Pet Cemetery bed
of the garden. I like him. He is cool like
me, but I am Springy and he is very rigid.
I guess that is why he can't report on the
garden. He can't move around as well as
I can. Besides he needs to stay near Silky.
I get it! His job is to watch only over Silky. With him is an interesting rose called
Sexy Rexy, not to be confused with our
black cat, Rexy. The rose is interesting
because it blooms 2 different rose
flowers as I am showing you here below.
Sexy Rexy from root & Sexy Rexy from graft

On the left this bed has been weeded and
pruned back. The right side has yet to be
done. The plants are Knot Weed which is
very drought tolerant, mostly dies back in
winter and is the 1st to pop back in spring.
A great ground cover. In the middle is a

Fairy Grass which will be shown later when
in bloom.

This is one of Tiffiny's favorite perennials.
She started a whole flat of these Mulleins
from seeds this year and has planted most of
them in this far garden bed. It should be
quite a sight next year when they are all as
large as this one. I'll be sure to give a good
report.
There are also vines against the fence and
Baby Tears ground cover in the back with
ferns where the shade is. There are also
miniature Calla Lilies here, but they need to
be moved since it doesn't get enough sun
and they are not happy.
Here's the compost center. Many weeds and

most pruning's go here. Still, in spring, the
weed load from the neighboring field is so
great that most of it goes back into the field.
Tiffiny has rarely needed to fertilize in the
past because of the wonderful loamy, wormy
soil, but now I told her that I think it is time
to add compost or at least some fish fertilizer.
Some of the plants say that they are hungry.
The compost bins seem to overwhelm her
because she is too little to turn them properly.
The little round green one does well and
provides lovely dark compost which she
strains through wire mesh.

This area needs attention as I pointed out to Tiffiny, but she reminded me that the
weeding and planting came first before
ascetics (I think that means looks). But I
think that she was sorry that she felt that
way when she learned that I planned on
posting this picture. I explained to her
that my job was reporting on what was,
not waiting until everything was perfect.
After all gardening to my understanding
is always a thing in progress, even the
mechanics. She grumbled.
I don't have pictures of the indoor
seedling seed starting garden, but Tiffiny
tells me that she has started seedlings of
Chinese Foxgloves (Rehmannia), Dame's
Rocket a tall perennial which likes partial
shade, Bee Balm (Monarda) another tall
plant, Maiden Pinks a low growing plant
with carnation type flowers.
So there is much excitement to follow:

Finally here are a few extra pictures of
interesting garden plants which will be
fun watch.
A Pelagoram geranium which Tiffiny doesn't
like and wants to remove. I shall try to
discourage her because it smells so
wonderful and loves being alive.

This yellow perennial alyssum is such a
happy plant. I am recommending that
Tiffiny plant more of it under the yellow
Chain Tree along with another Cat Mint
plant like the one below.
Tiffiny found a creature in the Cat Mint.
Tiffiny is not happy with her camera settings.
She says that it isn't focusing on close ups
very well. The photos are her job, not mine,
I don't do photos.
Finally, in the front is this Alltisimo Rose
Climber. This is the third spot Tiffiny has
replanted it and it is happy at last with it's
new home.
Note: the weed field in the background.
Maybe Sachio can being his weed trimmer
when he comes over. Here's a close up of
the rose.