A fun day

Hi from Region One, zone 5a, Omaha, Nebraska where it's been a fun day. This year I'm re-doing the entire back yard. The old deck will come down and in its place a new permanent deck.

I finally finished cleaning up dead stuff from the garden, and the next task is eradicating the nut sedge. For that reason, I didn't start any tomatoes from seed - but when I saw my favorite variety Golden Boy at a nursery, I couldn't resist purchasing it in addition to lantanas for the pots on my front porch. There's only one place to put it, and I'll have to move daylilies to accommodate it, but I'm re-sizing that bed anyway and it doesn't house nut sedge. Hopefully there won't be any damage from the deck renovation ...

I found plain-leaved Solomon's Seal at a local nursery and bought a pot of that also today. In that area, I had no choice but to spray weed killer to eradicate wild trandescantia (spiderwort) and it's still there. A few tiny sprigs of Solomon's Seal sprouted, and I cleaned them up and moved them, but just wanted to make sure I still had it. Like hosta, I like the plain-leaved kind of Solomon's Seal better :-))) but that's just me - and my yard is mostly sunny.

But wait - there's more! I bought a packet of Agastache rupestris and planted that in a seedling flat. It will join a flat of germinating Asclepias tuberosis 'Gay Butterflies' that I'm starting for my daughter, who is starting a butterfly garden concentrating on milkweed for monarch larvae. I'll keep a few plants to augment here - several different kinds of milkweed already grow here. It was a huge thrill to watch a monarch butterfly emerge from its chrysalis last summer!

What fun it was to see thousands of daffodils bloom throughout the garden. They do so well here, but now the latest are faded. Old-fashioned lilacs are past their prime but still fragrant. Peonies are next, beginning with the Mother's Day variety.

I love summer, and can't wait to see daylilies bloom!

Mary Baker