Renovations

My dream -- one of them -- has come true and the liriope is gone! Okay, not "gone" gone. It is still running along the property line on both sides of the front yard, and I actually replanted the stuff I dug out, with TREMENDOUS effort, on the eroding bank of the creek behind the house. But, as of lunch time today, it is gone from the borders of the beds in the front! Enthusiastic CHEER!

My enthusiastic cheer was followed, after lunch, by the dawning recognition that setting the edging stones is actually quite exacting, slow work. Walloping away at grass cemented into clay soil is exhausting but very straightforward. Still, I set a couple in today, and tomorrow I'm sure I will make Tremendous progress. And then I'll talk Ed into ordering a pile of mulch. And then my perennial seeds will have grown into beautiful plants, and then the yard will awash with beautiful blossoms and happy pollinators!

Finny will be Very glad when this summer's Large Project is done. 

He's had to stay inside while I dragged wagon loads of grass to the creek because an open gate is an invitation to him to play "you can't catch me." But he's been very interested in my efforts to grow plants. Particularly in the "Cow Pots" I ordered from Park Seeds. Cow Pots are, supposedly, like peat pots, only faster to decompose once planted in the soil. That part sounded really good but, what I didn't anticipate, is that they also, evidently, smell a bit of cow compost. Which Finny LOVES to dig in and sample when I use it in the garden. 

Speaking of pots and growing new plants, my efforts at plant propagation are having mixed results. The Solomon's Seal that a kind gardener gave me seems (fingers crossed!) to be progressing towards independent planthood. 

The spirea I clipped and dipped in rooting hormone....

not so much.

Clearly I need to read up on the process.

And we'll conclude with a couple pictures of some pretty things flowering in the back. And it's a good thing they flowered earlier rather than later, because, judging by the holes in the hosta leaves back there, we have a population of voracious slugs.