I MUST get into the habit of taking before and after pictures!
Frankie worked with me in the herb garden for an hour and a half yesterday, when it was deliciously cool in the early morning. I looked out over the garden this morning, and to the side there are three huge piles of herbs and brush waiting to be picked up, and a wheel barrow that is filled to the brim, waiting to be sent to the north 40. There’s also a new pile of mulch that needs to be distributed, but I’ll have to wait until the guys empty the wheelbarrow for me.
We cut back the chives, feverfew, lemon balm, the flower stalks of the lamb’s ears, and a good portion of the oregano. I decided to take the oregano down to the crown, and in the process came across a bunny nest. Something moved. Oooops…… I left some of the oregano around it to shade it. I hope….well, never mind. Enough said.
I also cut back spent stalks on the salvia, at Frankie’s suggestion. There are new starts coming up in the center of the plant, and Frankie tells me that there will be a flush of new growth now.
I have a rudbekia “Goldsturm” in the herb garden, and one more in a tiny area to the left of the back door to the garage. Catnip was trying to overgrow the one by the garage, so I pulled out all that catnip. It has spread to virtually all the gardens, so I don’t have to worry about running out of it. Besides, with Ed gone, I don’t need a lot of catnip right now.
I was startled to find that the chives were already growing back today! What an amazing plant!
Friday we had unexpectedly heavy rain. Frankie was woken by the sound of the rain on the roof, which is a pretty rare occurrence in this house. It’s structured in a way that there’s a lot of air space between the roof and the ceilings in most of the rooms, but the two “barrel” bump outs at the front of the house and the skylights can be pretty noisy in really hard rains. When we were out and about on Saturday morning, we found lots of streets that were closed due to flooding. I understand that some of the expressways in Chicago were closed for a bit.
I was delighted to have the rain. We were getting a little desperate, and I had begun watering with a hand-held watering wand. I was going to have to shift to a sprinkler, not my favorite thing to do. I had just planted cosmos and cleome in the gardens at the front of the house. I suspect that all that seed is now lodged at the front of the bed, and I’ll get a line of plants right at the sidewalk! Still, I am glad we had rain.