Time to catch the garden blog up to the present. There was a flurry of activity in the garden around the 6-7th of May and then again the last couple of days. The first was in response to the imminent visit of a fellow gardener (trying to avoid beind totally mortified) and the second to a bit of free time (school is out!).

Three of the vegetable beds cleaned up, turned and planted with starts of lettuce (butterhead and leafy), swiss chard, dill, parsley, brussels sprouts, cauliflower (Cheddar) and potatoes. These weren't plants that I started, but seedlings purchased from the local nursery (except the potatoes). There was a time that I would have felt a bit guilty about not starting my own, but I'm feeling a bit more pragmatic about available time. Besides gardening is not about guilt (I repeat that mantra often).

I covered the greens with a plastic pre-perforated with holes and the cole crops with spun row cover to keep them a bit warmer and protect against root maggots.

Also managed to trim some roses, begin clean up on a couple of flower beds and cleaned the greenhouse (it was appalling). Given another solid week, this place might look half way respectable...

I included the photo of the Daffodil because they are one of my favorite flowers for the garden. Deer don't eat them, they multiply, seem to tolerate rain, wind and variable winter temperatures and come in a variety of colors (okay within reason) and blooming time. Varieties bloom in my garden from March through June, some have fragrance (Pipit). The one in the photo has a nice warm pinkish yellow color and unfortunately is currently nameless. There are probably 20-25 varieties in my garden these days, only one of which is less than optimal. Not bad for one type of plant.